The Five Star Squadron Dairanger Vol 1: The Five Stars
by kirinranger1
Summary: Reimagining of the the Dairanger Story with new characters, plot and settings. The ancient tribes of the Dai and the Gorma have been fighting for millennia and have now brought their battle into the modern era. Can five young warriors from different backgrounds work together to stop humanity from being subjugated?
1. Chapter 1: The Gorma

_Long Beach, CA_

_February 2, 1994_

_RMS Queen Mary_

The cool sea air blew gently through the upper decks of the Queen Mary, the smell of the salt air made some of the tourists a little nauseous while others felt that it made the experience of being on board a famous cruise ship more exciting, although the ship had not been active in the past 27 years. Though it was not hard to imagine what the ship was like during its heyday. The people who have been aboard the ship ranged from famous heroes of the 2nd World War like former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who had helped draw up the plans to D-Day on board this ship; To some of Hollywood greatest actors and actress like Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.

Today, it was a hotel for those tourists who could not really afford to spend the money to take a cruise out into the Pacific or travel on the Queen's successor the QE 2 and take the voyage from New York or Southampton. In place of the luxurious rooms that once filled this giant hull were empty reminders of its heyday, offices and rooms were now either gutted or turned into small shops with the little trinkets that people would take as souvenirs of their time on board.

That didn't really matter to Colonel Shadam since he could care less about the history of this ship. Although he was enjoying the cool crisp breeze that was blowing through the deck, he personally felt that the Queen Mary was nothing more than a floating barge that should have been scuttled a long time ago. He sat alone on one of the deck chairs watching the people interacting with each other. He noticed the looks that people were giving him as they walked by; some of them thought that he might be some Japanese business man celebrating some kind of business deal he brokered. Others thought he might have been some movie star or something along those lines.

In reality, Shadam was the commander of a group called the Gorma. A tribe of humans that have lived for countless millennia in what modern man now calls China. In his time he was known for his brutality on the field but in more recent times he has been known by other names, Genghis Khan and Hideki Tojo were just two of his more familiar names. He lived through out time changing his appearance and involving himself in different wars, to help him improve his tactics to adapt to an ever changing world. He continued to watch the people looking at him and slightly envied how these people were so blind to what was going on around them, while the part of him that was a soldier felt like they were just cannon fodder. If he had a choice on how he could act he would choose neither and continue on his way, but unfortunately that was not on the agenda.

He moved his hand under his rugged face and rubbed it softly, looking out at the city but where some would have seen the beauty in the skyscrapers and the boats floating in the bay, he saw it as a battlefield and there was an enemy out there waiting for him. Yet, like all games of strategy all he could do was stay silent until his opponent made their move.

"It's sad isn't it?" Shadam said looking out at the city, "It's sad that these people are totally unaware of what's going on."

Another man, dressed in a leather jacket, black shirt, and leather pants stood silently behind Shadam, his resemblance reminded some of an Asian version of the Terminator, especially given the cold blank look that was on his face and the pair of Ray Ban sunglasses that he wore on his face. The man was known as Zydos, and considered to be the Colonel's 3rd in command.

"It is their own fault for ignoring what is around them." Zydos said looking out into nowhere, "Isn't that right, Gara?"

To the right of Zydos stood Lt. Colonel Gara, Shadam's 2nd in command. She playfully moved her hair from the front of her face, revealing her beautiful yet dangerous features that hid behind her brown eyes. She was an attractive young woman that was one of the fiercest soldiers that was ever known. She looked on at the city her own thoughts focused on something more distant than the musings of her commander, but was brought back to the present when she heard her name coming out of his mouth.

"I am just ready for the next move, it has been too long since I have fought." Gara said whispering into Shadam's ear.

"That is the difference between you and me." Shadam answered looking at the beer, "You look forward to the fight, while I would like to know what exactly our enemy is capable of."

"But these creatures can't be considered a real threat to us." Gara said, showing a hint of her own arrogance.

"That was what I thought when I fought against the Americans 50 years ago." Shadam started, "Granted these people are so barbaric that they still have petty wars; but when they come together when their nation is threatened."

"They are also the same people who corralled a group of people and put them into concentration camps just because they looked like their enemy." Gara retorted.

"Let's not forget that they were capable of creating a weapon that laid waste to two cities." Shadam said thinking back to the horrible destruction he saw at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; he could still see the people suffering from the wounds they received from the blast. "Humanity likes to think that they are so advanced and civilized when it comes to their society and technological advances when in fact they are still nothing more than the murderous animals that they have been since antiquity.

Let's take a long look at America, a land of people who escaped from Europe because of religious persecution, personal beliefs, and a chance at a new life. Yet when the locals helped the white person they were eventually repaid with death, famine, and relocated to land that was not even suitable for them. Or that these 'enlightened people' also sent people from Africa over in boats only to become slaves and brutally butchered them if they even thought of escape.

Even though these people fought for their freedom it took those same people over 80 years to abolish slavery; but they still had ways to control the people by dressing up in white sheets and burning crosses. These 'free' people still fight over the color of people's skin, property and sometimes even kill because of the type of shoes a person wears. These people may be strong but they are so full of contradictions."

"Yet you still have some sympathy for them?" Zydos asked wondering why his commander was talking like this.

"These people maybe nothing but animals." Shadam answered thoughtfully before he took a sip of a bottle of beer, letting the bitter after taste fill his mouth before he took a quick swallow and continued with his answer, "But there are those among them that do seem to want more than their barbaric urges. I've seen some things that are worth fighting for, but it is still not my place to question what I have been ordered to do."

"Nor is it mine, sir." Answered a young Japanese adolescent with a bowl shaped hair cut that stopped right above his eyebrows; his eyes were covered with a huge pair of eyeglasses that looked straight out of a manga. His outfit was even more outdated as he wore a Japanese school uniform from the 1940's. He nodded slowly in recognition and respect before he continued on towards Shadam and his companions.

"Dansaku." Gara answered looking at the young man, "It has been a very long time."

The young man Dansaku looked at Gara and answered, "That it has, but I was surprised when you asked me to come out here to America."

"The powers that be wanted to start the fight out here in the New World." Shadam said not paying Dansaku any mind, "A world that has not been touched by our hand, and I know that you have been waiting a long time for the chance to fight again."

"Yes, I have." Dansaku said looking out at the Downtown skyline, "Yet even I have my reservations about starting this fight here."

Shadam sat up from his chair and walked over towards the young man, eyeing him very carefully, "You know I could kill you for saying that to me; but I know you are just voicing a similar concern that I have as well. Just do your job and the sooner it is done, the sooner we can get out of this place."

Dansaku did not continue to ask more questions, but instead stood straight like a soldier standing at attention, "You will have my undying loyalty as always."

"Good." Shadam answered, "Then you know what you must do."


	2. Chapter 2: Warriors and Old Friends

_Long Beach, CA_

_Little Hong Kong- Tsai Chen Plaza_

_February 5, 1994 12:00 pm_

About two miles south of Downtown Long Beach is the Chinatown District, considered to be third largest in the world after Yokohama and San Francisco's Chinatowns. There was something unique about this particular district. Founded in the 1960's, "Little Hong Kong" as it was called by the local residents was considered to be one of the best places to find the latest items from Asia. Beneath the skyline of Downtown Long Beach stood rows of buildings stood above the 10,000 residents that resided in this growing borough.

Some of them were residential areas that looked like they had been around a lot longer than the 1960's. While some of the other shops and restaurants which catered to the tourists looked like they were built within the last 10 to 15 years. This was obvious by the way the Tsai Chen Plaza somewhat resembled Yaohan Plaza in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo District.

The three story building stood out among the smaller buildings and warehouse that surrounded it. Inside it held a Super 99 supermarket, a bookstore, and a couple of smaller shops on the first floor. The second floor consisted of the Tsai Chen department store which was known for bringing the latest fashions from Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo; while the stores that resided on the second floor catered to everything ranging from wedding clothing, karaoke, and a video arcade.

Or Wang's China Buffett, at first glance reminded you of a Chinese McDonald's. Yet these things did not matter since a lot of people just enjoyed the food and the Far Eastern feel of the place. Sometimes when the door opens you can smell the food they serve which is a mixture of Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, and Korean delicacies.

Of course there were those that even looked for remedies that Western Medicine could not help, but that was not what Mishelle Reynosa was looking for while she stood quietly on the corner of the street and took a long look at the area around her. What fascinated her was how all of this made her think of a time that was so long ago. Long before there were any cars, planes or any other conveniences of modern technology.

The tall young Latina felt the wind blowing through her long raven black hair as she buttoned up her red and black jacket which had the words "Lakewood High Lancers" stenciled on the back. Within a moment she found herself thinking some more about the early settlers that came over to the United States from the Mainland, wondering what it was like for them, was their plight similar to those Yaquis' that were hunted down by the Mexican Government back during the turn of the century?

All these questions raced through her mind while she let it drift even further past the last century to the time when China still had Feudal Lords, but what got her attention more than the feudal lords that she was thinking about was the statue of Fa Mulan standing in front of her posed like she was defending plaza in front of them. Mishelle always loved learning about the women who stood out in the annals of history: Joan of Arc, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Susan B. Anthony.

However, it was the story of Fa Mulan that she enjoyed the most. Of how this young woman disguised herself as a man to enter the Imperial Army because her father was ill. She read somewhere that she eventually married one of her comrades in arms. Mishelle sighed longingly hoping that she could have had a chance to do the things like Mulan had in her time. Of course there was joining the U.S. Military, but she could not think of doing that since she was the eldest of three children and was determined to be the first in her family get into college.

Mishelle put those thoughts aside and slowly moved her head towards her left watching some of the locals' hustle and bustle about their everyday routine. She took a deep breath just help clear the cobwebs from her mind and looked towards the right at a red Suzuki Samurai that sat in a nearby parking lot.

Near the front of the vehicle stood two young women talking amongst themselves; the first woman was tall and voluptuous but very rigid which was noticeable in the way she stood against the car. The second woman was a little shorter than the first one but where the former was rigid in the way she acted; the latter was very excitable by the animated way she continued talking about the subject she was discussing.

The first woman fumbled with long brown hair, at first putting it up into a ponytail and then continued to fumble with the right front which covered part of her face, while the left was totally bare and shown her round but gentle face and jade green eyes. The look on her face was mixed with boredom and anticipation while she listened on, wishing that the topic would be over with soon.

"Lola, you just don't know when to shut up do you?" The first woman, Angela Steele sighed having enough of the second woman's conversation for the moment.

The second woman, Lola Ricci answered back, "What did I say that was so wrong?"

"You're bad mouthing someone who isn't here to defend himself!" Angela snapped back thinking that the whole conversation was ridiculous in the first place.

Mishelle shook her head and started to walk over towards the two young women arguing amongst themselves. She loved hanging around Angela and Lola but there were times that she felt that the arguing was a little too much.

"Will you stop it!" Mishelle snapped moving between her two friends, "There are times where you both just drive me crazy!"

Lola shrank down a little bit and looked up towards Mishelle, "I'm sorry Mish."

'Mish' as Lola called her waved her hand at Lola and then turned her attention towards Angela, "And you, why do you even let her bait you into those arguments?"

Angela rolled her eyes for a moment and looked the other way and walked towards the passenger side of the Samurai. She did not really care about where this conversation was going and was going to let her silence to be the end of it. Before she opened the door she heard the sound of a motorcycle pulling up to the plaza, she looked back and saw a gold streak pass by. At first she wanted to move away from the car and find out who was driving the motorcycle but stopped herself from moving on her suspicion. She noticed that Mishelle and Lola looking at her quizzically because of the way she was acting; but relented and opened the door to the car and sat quietly looking out at the window.

_Plaza parking level 4._

On the top of the parking complex Nancy Wong Fei Wu looked down at the group of women around the Suzuki Samurai. She stood there quietly not even caring about the weather or the small gusts of wind that blew through her white and violet DKNY windbreaker or the pink Cheongsam shirt that she wore underneath. Although she did feel relieved that she was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans instead of a full dress, which she felt would be out of place given that she was on an assignment.

Nancy noticed the way one of the women noticed the motorcycle that rushed into the parking lot and wondered why she would have done that. Her first reaction was that maybe the woman was a little startled by the vehicle but her gut told her that there was something more to it. She wished that she could have been close enough to hear what was being said but she continued to make some small observations in her mind so she could reference them later if she needed to.

"How long do we have to keep doing this, Tommy?" Nancy asked looking back at a blue and gold 1992 Kawasaki Ninja parked a few feet from her and noticed a young African American-Chinese man sitting down watching her move away from the parking lot wall towards him.

Tommy Xiao Li sat on top of the motorcycle calmly looking at Nancy underneath a pair of John Lennon glasses that rested on his semi hardened face that was slightly covered by his long wavy hair that flowed in the wind. His wardrobe however, was a lot different than his trendy counterpart. He wore a black Prussian student jacket which was a common item to wear among male Japanese students; underneath the jacket was his yellow jersey with blue along the collar and shoulders that he wore like some kind of badge of honor. What made his outfit look even more outlandish was the blue jeans and black Converse that he wore along with it.

"Well, we were told by Chin Mei that we were to observe them." Tommy (or Li as he was more known by) said as he fumbled with a blue and gold motorcycle helmet that rested near the handle bars of his motorcycle, "I don't like it either."

"You don't like it because one of them is someone you care about." Nancy answered seeing Li look the other way and continue to fumble with his helmet.

"There is that." Li whispered and looked back at Nancy, "But this is our job."

"Yeah, it is." Nancy nodded and patted Li on the shoulder, "Anyway, I saw the car heading north towards Downtown Long Beach, so let's get it over with."

Li picked up the helmet and placed it on top of his head before turning on the motorcycle and waited for Nancy to hop onto the back. He felt his bike shake slightly from her weight which followed by her putting on the spare helmet he kept for passengers and finally her wrapping her arms tightly against his waist and moving her body closer towards him.

"You know you like it when I do this." Nancy said over the small commlink that was attached to the helmet.

Li smiled underneath his helmet and said, "There will be time for that after we're done with this.

Nancy pouted a little bit and said, "You're just saying that because you know we are going after Angela. For the past couple of days it's been 'Angela this' and 'Angela that', Angela, Angela, Angela!"

"If I didn't know better, I think you were jealous." Li chuckled only to feel the hard slap of Nancy hitting the back of his helmet.

"Come on!" Nancy screamed trying to hide the fact, "They're leaving!"

Obeying the order that was given to him, Li launched his motorcycle from where he was parked and raced from the top level of the structure towards the next floor. He moved the bike past the speed bumps that littered each floor and continued down until he reached the street level and raced on towards Downtown Long Beach seeing the red Suzuki Samurai in the distance which carried their targets. Determined he raced through the rows of cars passing each of them with very little effort and managed to stop a couple of yards behind them, doing his best to keep his distance, wondering what was being said amongst the three young women.

_Inside the Samurai._

Mishelle kept her eye on the road in front of her, wishing that the traffic would go a little faster instead of having to pass the time waiting. She took a look through the mirrors to make sure there wasn't anyone coming or being dangerous behind her. That was one thing she did not need while she was already dealing with two people who had already argued about something stupid a few minutes ago. Instead she turned on the radio to 102.7 KIIS FM and listened to Rick Dees continue with the weekly top forty talking about the song "All For Love" still keeping its place at number one.

Mish had nothing against Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, or Sting. It was just that she was honestly tired of having to hear that song over and over again. She honestly prayed that another song would knock it out of the charts soon. Yet it was a lot better than listening to Lola trying to sing like TLC's Left Eye Lopez in the back seat. She held her hands against the steering wheel, wishing that she could turn around and stuff the walkman down her throat, but she still decided that she should be the cooler head in this situation. Instead, it was Angela that decided to slap her friend on the knee to let her know that she was being too loud.

"You're being too damn loud!" Angela screamed making Lola jump in her seat, making the seatbelt constrict her.

"Dammit!" Lola screamed but was immediately stopped herself as she saw her friend staring her down with a cold glance.

Angela slowly turned her body back around facing front, she took a look up at the light turning green; feeling the car accelerate back towards the city. She exhaled quietly feeling a little pleased at the fact that they were moving once more, and looked towards the driver's side window seeing the RMS Queen Mary in the distance, resting peacefully in its dock. It had been a long time since she had been on the ship, and she didn't really like to go by herself unless she was with a certain person. Sometimes at night they would go to the starboard side of the ship and look out at the city lights and watch the shine or notice the people enjoying themselves at the Pike.

Angela slowly turned away from the sight of the ship and looked towards the passenger side window watching the hustle and bustle of the cars and people along the streets of Downtown Long Beach, still thinking about the argument that she had with Lola. At first she forgot about the whole thing, but the sight of the Queen Mary brought it all back to the surface.

The original argument consisted of the fact that she liked a young man that used to go out of his way to protect people and got his butt kicked in the process. Unfortunately, he moved to Japan for a couple of years with his family, but they kept in touch with letters until a few months ago when she received one stating that his mother was killed.

At first, she thought he was going to be coming back to the States, but the letters started to get a little sporadic and a little heartbreaking when he mentioned how alone he felt out there when after his Mother died. She still worried about her friend and though she would not admit it directly that she really did care about him.

Mishelle noticed Angela's silence and decided that it was time she said something, "You two got into an argument because she mentioned him, right?"

Angela didn't turn around but she softly said, "Yes."

Mishelle still kept her eyes on the road as they began to approach the entrance to the 710 freeway and continued her conversation, "Why do you still worry about him? From what you told me, the two of you never really went out."

"He saved my life." Angela said turning back towards Mish.

"From what I remember about that, wasn't it because he was getting into trouble?" Mishelle asked.

Angela chuckled to herself, "Yeah, but if he wasn't there in the first place I wouldn't be here to enjoy your company."

Mishelle nodded and asked, "Have you heard from him?"

"Not since that last letter." Angela answered looking down for a moment, "It doesn't surprise me though, not after what he had just gone through out there."

"Losing his mother and his girlfriend to some psychopath, followed by an attack on his High School; some people would have gone nuts."

"Yeah." Angela said as she continued to look out the passenger side window, when she noticed something that got her attention. A few cars behind the Samurai, was a blue and gold Kawasaki Ninja and its driver was wearing a helmet similar to the color of the bike. Her eyes widened at the sight of the motorcycle since she knew one person who would ride something like that. Quietly under her breath she whispered the name 'Li' while she kept her eye on the vehicle following behind.


	3. Chapter 3: The Lion Dreams

_Seal Beach. _

Nick Starr relaxed on the rocks of the shore, feeling the cold breeze of the ocean blowing behind him, ruffling his red hair and taking a moment to looking pensively at his surfboard lying right next to him. He had decided to come out here to see if the waves would help calm this ominous feeling that was gnawing at his stomach. Whatever was bothering him just kept him from going into the ocean and instead look at the Downtown skyline. He felt like there was something not right and he could not explain his feeling even if he wanted to, how could he explain to someone that he was having strange dreams about something that looked like the end of the world, and a young woman calling out for him. Even to him it sounded a little bizarre to believe; silently Nick collapsed and continued to look out at the waves crashing against the shore just wondering what was going on inside his head.

"You still are having trouble sleeping?" A young woman said from behind Nick. She stood there silently, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt that covered her face and said 'Lakewood High School Class of 1993' on the front and a pair of faded denim jeans, her did little to hide how attractive she was. In her left hand was a surfboard with the Japanese Kanji for 'heaven' written on the bottom. Slowly she walked over towards him and he immediately turned around to greet her.

"Amika!" Nick cried out looking at the young woman standing in front of him.

Amika Hayase was a friend of Nick's going back to his childhood when they used to live next door to each other. After high school, she moved out of the neighborhood and onto the dorms at Cal State Long Beach, but she still talked to him very frequently. She grabbed onto him tightly after she dropped her board while he felt the air slowly coming out of his lungs.

"I am surprised to see you here Ami." Nick said, "I thought you were doing something with your friends at the college?"

Amika released Nick from her hug and answered, "Yeah, but I was just looking to catch some waves instead."

"Bull…" Nick smiled, "You heard I was out here."

"Yeah, your mother told me that you were." She smiled, "I wanted to see you."

"What's going on?" Nick asked.

Amika walked over towards the rocks where Nick was originally sitting and sat down looking out towards Downtown Long Beach in the distance and sighed softly to herself. She took a look back towards her friend and wondered where she should really start with this conversation. Also she did noticed that it looked like there was something on his mind as well before she came over here to talk to him, she felt her heart beating underneath her sweatshirt and looked back out towards the city and took a deep breath.

"I don't really want to bother you with my problems." Amika half heartedly answered, "Especially when I see there is something bothering you."

"You can tell?" Nick asked as he saw Amika nod back in response, "Well if there was anyone besides my own mother who could tell something was wrong with me, it would be you."

Amika put her hand on Nick's shoulder and said, "Why don't you tell me."

"I don't even know where to begin." Nick sighed and looked back out towards the city.

"The beginning is always a nice place, you know." Amika sat down beside Nick, the expression on her face showed that she was more than ready to listen.

"I've been having these strange dreams lately and I have a hard time shaking them off." Nick started after taking a deep breath; his eyes still focused at Downtown and the _Queen Mary_, "A lot of times it is about death and destruction, almost like there is something bad about to begin."

Amika waited a moment to make sure Nick was finished before she answered, "It could be that you are dreading change, you are a senior this year and you will be graduating in a few months."

"I wish it was that simple." Nick continued, "There is a lot more to it, these dreams feel like they are some kind of foreboding; a preview of things to come."

"What do you mean?"

Nick's body stiffened the more he looked back into his dreams, "They started a few months ago, I had this bad dream that there was some kind of horrific accident that happened in this school on the other side of the world, I just thought it was because of some movie I saw that night. Until a couple of days later I heard about that big massacre at that school in Japan was all over the news."

"The Shin-Ju Massacre?" Amika asked when she saw that Nick closed his eyes to confirm her question.

"I continued to have even more weird dreams after that. I still shrugged it off until a few days ago when people were claiming to be attacked by some weird looking creature. That was when I knew my dreams were not dreams."

Amika took in what Nick had to say and that was when she felt a weird sensation envelope her body, it was not that she didn't believe him or rather she did. There was a lot more to it, something that she wanted to tell him and that was the reason she was here to see him in the first place.

"You are not the only one who has had these visions, Nick." Amika said softly, "I've been having dreams like this for a while now and I don't know why or what they mean, but they're almost like memories or something else."

"Memories?" Nick asked.

"I don't exactly how, but it's like I am someone else and I keep calling for someone to help me, but I know that there is no one around."

Nick prepared to open his mouth when he heard a little boy singing a song. At first he could not make out what was being sung, but he noticed that it had Amika's full attention and immediately she perked up and looked around to see where the song was coming from, she had recognized it as a famous Japanese song known as "Jun Renka or 'The Starting Over Love Song'". Yet the way that the boy was singing it gave her chills down her back while he took a look around, sensing something was not right about the situation at all.

_Suki Desu Suki Desu Kokoro kara, aishite imasuyoto, amai kotoba no urani ha hitori garashino samishisa ga atta…._

Nick's eyes narrowed knowing that something was not right about this whole situation. He turned around to see if he could spot anything out of the unusual and maybe hone in on where the singing was coming from, but he could not see anyone except him, Amika, and the other beachcombers that were walking along the shore; until he felt a sensation that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. From the corner of his eye he could see what appeared to be a brown and white tentacle heading towards the two of them; without much time to react he grabbed her and pushed her down to the sand with him as the tentacle went past them and crashed into a nearby restaurant.

"The fuck!" Amika screamed noticing the damage that just ensued in front of them.

Nick picked himself up and looked around to see if he could see where it went, but instead he saw a brownish blur heading towards him and sent him flying a couple of feet into the air and straight into a garbage dumpster. Slowly he picked himself up moaning in pain, but was immediately brought back to his senses as he heard Amika screaming for help; his heart raced knowing that he would never be able to forgive himself if something happened to her.

He looked down at his wrists and revealed two devices, on the right was a gray capsule shaped device with a small circle at the upper end of it, yet there was writing on the center of the device that said the phrase "Aurachanger" in bold print. On the left was a gold and black device that had a small slot on the left side which resembled a key hole of sorts. Immediately he pulled out the small circle which extended to a key shape and moved it into position of the second device.

"KIRYOKU TENSHIN AURACHANGER!" Nick screamed quickly moving the device into the slot, which immediately was followed by a green surge of light that engulfed his body and covered him in a suit of green type material, which was immediately followed by a pair of gloves, boots, and a white vest with a small circle with five distinct colors (Red in the center, with blue and green on the top and yellow and pink below) on one side and on the other side was all gold with a small line in the center which made it look like the letter 'D'. His face was immediately covered with a helmet which had a visor in the center and a design which resembled a Lion; at this moment he was known as the Shi-Shi Ranger.

Quickly, he jumped out of the dumpster and rushed back towards where Amika was being cornered by a group of people dressed in black tuxedo like clothing with white faces that had no eyes, but only red lips where the mouth was located. Underneath his helmet, Nick's eyes narrowed as he recognized the people immediately as a group of soldiers known only as Copotros; Foot soldiers that worked for the Gorma. Without even thinking about his next move, he rammed himself into the group of Copotros and pushed them back.

Three of the soldiers moved back and immediately began to charge forth towards Nick while he swung his left arm forward with all the strength he could muster at that moment into one hard hit. The punch impacted against the first Copotros and sent the creature reeling back towards a nearby railing while the other two continued to charge towards him. Immediately he moved out of the way and grabbed the one closest towards him and threw him into the furthest soldier. In the situation he saw that it was best to just keep the whole thing quick and painless as possible.

Shi-Shi Ranger turned back around towards Amika and asked, "Are you all right?"

Amika just smiled lightly and said, "This was not how I expected to spend my day."

"Neither was I…." Shi-Shi Ranger said but was interrupted by an object hitting him square in the chest and causing him to fall down to the ground limp like a ragdoll.

Amika rushed over towards the injured Shi-Shi Ranger and kneeled beside him trying to help him up, but he slowly struggled up from the ground and immediately collapsed again. She grabbed him again and felt a surge of information rush through her mind like someone changing the channel at super speed. Her eyes suddenly began to glow a light blue and she moved away from the injured warrior until she felt something grab her by the waist, and pull her away from him. She looked down and saw the tentacle was wrapped securely around her, without hesitation she curled her fists together and tried to knock herself free from her captor but there was no effect as she continued to be taken away from her green protector and into the large maw of another tentacle waiting for her.

The Shi-Shi Ranger stood up and looked around to see that Amika was gone, and immediately powered down to his normal clothing. He could hear the blood curdling scream of his friend being taken away by whatever had attacked them and clenched his fists tight until he could feel the blood trickle down his hand. Something was going on, and it looked like this was just the beginning of something big.


	4. Chapter 4: Steven

It was quiet.

Yet that was to be expected for Steven Hart during a weekend morning. Usually during the night he would be up trying to figure out the latest Super Nintendo role playing game with only a few cans of Coke and Doritos to sustain him. When it was a school week, he would be busy trying to make sure he was caught up in his classes and at the same time cater to the school's Navy ROTC 3rd in command, Angela Steele or "Commodore Crabby" as he liked to call her since there were times that she made even the scariest of Marine Corps DI's look like kittens when she was moody. Which was why he was still asleep on his bed, he had to do some logistics work for her last night and he wasn't finished with it until sunrise.

His dreams, however, consisted of something a little more…enjoyable for a young man his age. Although he was considered one of the brightest students at Lakewood High School, Steve would rather spend his time meeting that one beautiful woman who would help him learn all the carnal pleasures that any teen would want to learn. In his case, he was dreaming about Robin Givens being that special woman to do that.

In the back of his mind, on that edge between being asleep and awake he began to hear a light sound coming from far away. At first he ignored it while he was focusing more on Robin's bosom pressed against his face, yet the small white noise continued to get louder with each second until he looked up at his dream woman and heard a familiar male voice coming out her.

_Steve this is Nick please respond!_

THUD!

Robin had been replaced with nothing but darkness; someone was going to pay for that, he was so close to having her do the things he had only seen what little he could make out from the Spice Channel and all the after dark movies he could watch on Cinemax. He opened his eyes, noticing the carpet in his room was face level and groaned in frustration at this revelation. Slowly he sat himself up and heard the voice continue to talk with urgency.

_Steve, do you read me?_

Rushing off the ground, Steve picked himself up and headed towards the desk where he left his Aurachanger and picked up the Aura Spader, "Do you know that you woke me up from a wonderful dream?"

"I don't care if you were running naked around the house with your sister." Nick blurted out of the Aurachanger, "I need you to get up right away."

He sounded a little panicked, which was something Steve had never heard from his friend, "Are you okay, man?"

"No, things have just gone to shit around here." Nick answered trying to keep his cool, "The Gorma has appeared."

Steve began to be even more alert at the sound of the Gorma, "They made a move?"

"Those bastards took Ami." The anger in Nick's voice was apparent.

Steve looked around for some clothes that he could throw on immediately, "Do you need me to come out to where you are?"

"No, just head over towards the Mall and help Li and Nancy." Nick said, "I will meet up with you guys over there and then we'll come up with a game plan."

"Understood." Steve signed off and grabbed his jeans and a Lakewood High 'ROTC' shirt before heading to the shower.

It took Steve ten minutes to get showered and dressed immediately followed by heading towards the living room, where his little sister, Morena was sitting down watching her Saturday Morning cartoons. He wished that he did not have to go out and leave her here while he was about to go out and do something extremely dangerous and what some would consider a suicide mission. Yet, he looked back towards his eight-year-old sister and knew that if he didn't he would not be able to live with himself if these Gorma were to get their hands on her because of his inaction.

Morena looked up from the television, her innocent blue eyes focused on her brother being dressed and ready to head out, "Where are you going?"

Steve hated lying to his little sister, in fact, he used to get on her when she did something similar, but he thought about what was going on and said, "I gotta go out and run some errands for school."

Her face, which usually lit up whenever her brother came in the room, began to show signs of disappointment, "You're always busy."

Steve let out a small sigh of sadness and gently patted her on the head, "I know, when I come back, I'll take you to Thrifty for some ice cream."

Morena's sadness immediately disappeared at her brother's words, "Sherbert?"

"Whatever you want?"

"You promise?"

Steve raised his right hand up in the air as if he was taking an oath, "May Snoopy come and find me and tear off my nose if I don't."

"I AM HOLDING YOU TOO THAT!" Morena screamed while she watched her brother head out of the door.

Steve looked up at the clouds for a moment before he continued down the driveway towards the main sidewalk. Lakewood Mall was at least 15-20 minutes away by bus, so that would not be too bad. He walked further down and heard the sound of a car approaching him. Slowly, he turned around and saw a black 1992 Honda Accord LX sedan racing towards him with complete urgency. The vehicle stopped in front of him and in the driver's seat was a beautiful young woman dressed in a white suit jacket, black slacks and a matching blouse that went down her front in a 'v'. She motioned for him to enter the car which he did without hesitation.

"I did not think you would come and get me, Tonya." Steve said closing the door and fastening his seatbelt.

Tonya, put her foot on the accelerator and continued towards the Lakewood Mall, "You needed a lift to the mall, didn't you? I heard what was going on with the Gorma and thought it would be a lot better than waiting for the RTD to arrive."

"Thanks." Steve looked out the window, "What have the others said about all of us acting?"

The others he was referring to were the team mentors who helped with the strategic end of the operations. There were three people involved with that, but the one in charge was a man named Kaku. Tonya took a deep breath before she started, "He wants you to proceed with what Nick said and then go from there."

"No problem and what about your brother?"

"He has been keeping out of trouble." Tonya answered calmly, "He is not the same guy you remember."

"I heard." Steve relaxed for a little bit seeing the Mall getting closer, "I just hope he doesn't let his personal feelings cloud his judgment."

A small hint of worry appeared on Tonya's face, "He's still the same in that department."


	5. Chapter 5: Reunion

_Lakewood Mall. _

_Food Court 3:00 p.m._

The mood at the Mall was busy like any other Saturday afternoon; the hustle and bustle of customers walking in and out of the stores giving tribute to the all mighty dollar. On one end of the plaza, the smell of the various foods being cooked from the Food Court permeated part of the Mall while the teenagers from the local schools were hanging out in their usual cliques. The jocks were on the other end of the food court talking about their accomplishments on the field with their cheerleader girlfriends nearby whispering among themselves about how the starting players were outside of the field. Not too far away from them were the theatre students hanging out going over their lines for the latest production at the school while the Goths were doing their best to be opposite of the norm.

Nancy noticed the different groups of people and wondered what in the world did she get herself into by coming inside this place. She had seen American shopping centers portrayed on shows like Beverly Hills 90210 but this was nowhere near her expectations on what to expect. Not too far away from her she heard a group of students speaking in Mandarin about what they were going to do for Valentine's Day which only made her feel a little lonely. Even though she was sitting right across from the silent Li who was more focused on the job at hand than she expected him to be given the situation.

"You know if you keep staring in the direction that they went; you're just going to burn a hole in a store window." Nancy laughed.

Li smiled softly and said, "I just want to make sure they're all right."

"No, you just want to make sure Angela is all right." Nancy smirked, "Damn Xiao, if I did not know better I'd say she has you by the balls without even trying."

"It's not anything like that." Li said, "It's just I am trying to fulfill a promise I made a long time ago."

"You have not changed one bit, Tommy." Steve answered walking towards the table where the two were sitting followed by immediately joining in on the conversation, "If there are two constants in the world, one of them would be Tommy Xiao Li always prepared to get his ass kicked protecting Angela Steele."

"You must be Steve Hart." Nancy extended her hand out in friendship.

"And of course you're Nancy Wu." Steve grabbed her hand and shook it, there was something about this woman that made the hairs on his neck stick up, it wasn't fear or anything of the sort. Yet, immediately he could tell that she was different.

Nancy smiled at Steve and immediately removed her hand and continued with the previous conversation. "He used to get his ass kicked protecting this girl?"

"Not all the time." Li ignored his friend's remark while he continued to scan the shopping center.

"But it was a good majority of the time." Steve continued, "You would always see him with blood all over his face and bruises on the rest of him all because he was trying to protect Angela from something he did."

Nancy laughed at the thought, "That hasn't changed too much…Remind me to tell you some of the stories about him in Japan."

"Can we change the subject, please?" Li was looking a little embarrassed, "What the heck are you doing here anyway"

"I got a call from Nick." Steve answered; his tone became sharp, "It appears that they have made their move."

Nancy clasped her hands together while her face slowly contorted to show an almost malicious smile form across her face, "I was wondering when we would actually have a chance to bust some heads."

"How's Nick?" Li asked.

"They took Amika." Steve said.

Li looked a little concerned when he heard that, for him it was not surprising that the Gorma would attack someone like that so easily. He looked towards Nancy and Steve and said, "We got to act."

"We don't even know where they will strike next, plus we got to figure out where they took Amika." Steve answered.

"That doesn't matter." Li said, "We just have to make sure that those three are not attacked."

Steve rolled his eyes, "You just want to save Angela."

"That and what is going on are two different things." Li's tone became cold and focused, something Steve was not used to.

"Chin Mei and Kaku both think that there is something special about two of the three women. They are not sure what exactly, but we can't let anything happen to them."

Nancy answered.

"I think that one of them might be the last person we need to make the team whole." Li answered.

Steve thought about that for a moment, the last member to make the team whole. If it was Angela, he kind of felt that his life would be more of a hurdle given that she already made his ROTC life a living hell. Part of him was ready to walk out of the mall and say 'to hell with it' but he knew that there was more at stake than his own personal problems.

"They went towards Miller's Outpost." Li moved away from the table and prepared to walk towards the store.

"So you are going for the direct approach?" Steve asked.

Li took off his glasses and stared coolly at him, "Something like that, but it does involve contact with our targets."

Nancy put her hand on Li, "What do you have in mind?"

_Miller's Outpost_

Mishelle nervously walked out of the fitting room dressed in a new pair of loose fitting Anchor Blue jeans that she was trying on. At first she nervously looked in the mirror at the way they looked on her, almost like one of the rappers she had seen on television, but she would have preferred to look more relaxed since she never was one to follow with the trends that almost everyone her age was trying to emulate. After she looked at herself with disdain; she slowly walked over towards the passage way where Angela was waiting while she looked for a shirt for her to wear while Lola just looked on at their friend, contemplating on what her answer should be.

"What do you think?" Mishelle asked seeing Angela shake her head no in disapproval.

Lola on the other hand was a little more direct, "You look like you're a Fly Girls reject."

Mishelle's face contorted to convey her dismay at her friend's remark, "You can be a real bitch sometimes."

Lola feigned a look of surprise and retorted, "You asked my opinion, don't get all upset with me if you don't like it."

"Whatever…" Mishelle said walking back towards the dressing room.

"Hey, did you guys hear about the strange attacks that the police have been reporting?" Lola tried to change the conversation.

"What kind of strange attacks?" Angela asked.

"Well there have been reports on the news that people have been disappearing all over Long Beach. The only thing that's left is their personal belongings."

"What is so strange about that?" Mishelle yelled from the nearby stall.

"The fact that there are no real signs of struggle or anything, the whole fact that their personal belongings are the only thing that is left has the police baffled." Lola said, "I think that there might be a killer on the loose attacking people and dragging them off in a van and leaving their remains off of International Waters."

Angela raised her eyebrow and took a long gaze at Lola, "You are sounding ridiculous. That is the last time I am ever having you come over and watch those damned slasher movies."

"What is so ridiculous about that?" Lola asked, "Look at Ted Bundy, he looked like a normal man, but in reality he was slashing up beautiful women and leaving them dead all over the country. Or what about John Wayne Gacy…"

"It figures that you would only get stranger as time goes by." Li answered from behind Lola.

Angela immediately froze in shock at the voice that was coming from behind her. At first she did not know what she should do; it had been a long time since she had seen Tommy Li, but there was no real way of expecting to see him in the mall of all places, specifically right now. She slowly turned around and took notice of the man that was standing there before her. She remembered him looking a little dorky in the way he dressed and acted, but there was something different about him and she could tell right away by how he dressed himself, he still looked like he was still living in Tokyo, right down to the way he styled his hair.

Li let a half hearted smile show on his face as he saw Angela Steele standing in front of him. He felt his heart racing slightly as he looked at her from underneath his glasses and stuttered, "It's been a long time."

Angela dropped all her pretenses and rushed up towards the stuttering Li, wrapping her arms around him smiling as she tightly held on to him, "I can't believe it's you."

Tommy tensed up when she grabbed a hold of him, it felt good to feel Angela hug him. It felt good to have some kind of physical contact from another person that did not mean that you would have to fight for your life. Slowly, he began to relax and smile to himself at least knowing that she was all right for the moment.

Lola rolled her eyes at the sight of her friend hugging him and took notice of the two people that were standing behind him, immediately she recognized Steve Hart and dismissed him but the young Asian woman got her full attention. She eyed the woman carefully watching her stand quietly while she noticed Li and Angela hugging for a little bit. Was this woman Li's girlfriend or relative? Why was she just standing there like a bodyguard? Too many questions went through her head and she didn't know where to begin except the one place she always liked to begin, antagonizing Tommy.

"You still look as dorky as ever, Li." Lola said pushing the two apart, "Since when did it look cool to look like a reject from a Hong Kong action flick?"

Li slowly turned back towards Lola and smirked, "Around the same time you made it look cool to be more masculine than most men."

"You no good son of a…" Lola started but was immediately stopped by Angela.

"Look, can we forego your usual digging into someone for just one moment?" Angela looked at Li for a moment, "I have to agree with Lola a little bit Thomas; you do look a lot different than you did a couple of years ago."

"Well living in Japan does that to someone." Li answered politely and took a look at Angela and her current look. He remembered her being a little tomboyish in her fashion sense but how she dressed now surprised him immensely but he chose not to comment on it right now since there were still other things on his mind.

Angela took notice of Nancy standing behind him and asked, "So are you going to introduce your friend back there?"

"Yes, this is Nancy Wu." Li answered, motioning to Nancy to move close so she could introduce herself to Angela and her friend.

"It's nice to finally put a face to the friend Xiao has told me so much about." Nancy smiled, extending her hand out for Angela to shake.

"What has he told you about me?" Angela asked while she shook the young woman's hand.

"He said that you were one of his closest friends out here and that's all, unless he was mistaken about it?" Nancy asked.

"No, not at all." Angela said.

Mishelle finally walked out of the fitting room with the jeans in her hand. She still felt a little upset that she really could not find a pair that she really wanted for herself. She took one more look at them and just left it back at the counter where the unwanted clothes were kept and immediately noticed Angela and Lola talking to Steve Hart and his two friends which one of them she recognized immediately at the wayward Tommy Xiao Li and he guessed that the other woman was a friend of his.

"Tommy Li." Mishelle said looking at Li who immediately stared at the woman calling out his name.

"Mish." Li answered smiling with respect, "It's good to see you again."

Li and Mishelle knew each other since elementary, back then she was what the students at school would consider the type of person who would not let anyone get hurt. Occasionally he was one of the people she would save and later berate for his actions. Yet she was one of the few friends that he knew would also be there if there was something wrong. She walked up to her old friend and hugged him and taking a long look at the way he looked compared to her last memory of him: A skinny looking kid with a ponytail, buttoned up short sleeve shirt and large lens glasses that made him look more like the type of person who would get beat up in an instant. Instead she saw a little bit of that child but there was something determined behind that façade.

"Will you ever call me by Mishelle?" She asked smiling at her old friend.

"Someday." Li answered and hugged Mishelle.

"So, Thomas." Angela said coyly her green eyes felt like they were staring straight through Li's soul, "How long have you been back in town?"

He answered, "About two days."

"And you didn't even leave me a message that you were coming to town?" Angela asked, her voice rising slightly showing that she was a little stunned that he had been here and not even given her fair notice that he was back in town.

Li looked nervous when he heard Angela's voice rise slightly; there was one thing about her that really bothered him, and that was she sometimes had a temper that could become volatile in a matter of seconds, but he still kept his composure and told her, "It was unexpected."

"What do you mean unexpected?" She asked getting a little closer towards Li.

"It's a family matter." Li said being to the point.

Angela's voice lowered an octave and she asked, "Does this mean you will be going back to Tokyo when you are done here?"

Li couldn't look at her when she asked him that; but he answered quietly, "I don't know yet."

"Is that why you didn't tell me you were here?" She asked.

Li continued to look away and said, "I didn't want to get your hopes up."

Angela felt a little hurt when he told her that he wasn't sure how long he was going to be in town. She slowly looked back at him and answered back almost like her words were venom., "If it doesn't interfere with whatever it is you have to do; come over to my place and see me if before you leave."

"Angela, wait…" Li said but was stopped by the look of hurt in her eyes.

Angela brushed past Li and Nancy with Mishelle and Steve following her. Lola on the other hand took a look at him and said, "You have always been an asshole when it came to her; when will you realize that she worries about you?"

"I know she does." Li answered Lola in a way that he never talked to her before, "But I don't want to hurt her; she doesn't deserve that."

"You're hurting her with the things you say and do." Lola said and shook her head leaving Li with one more pearl of wisdom before she left to find her friend, "You should have stayed in Japan."

Nancy shook her head at Li and said, "She's right, you can be a real asshole sometimes."

Li turned back to his teammate and said, "So, you're gonna side with Lola on this?"

"Well, yeah!" Nancy started, "Look at what you did, we were supposed to keep an eye on them and you decided to let them run off."

"With Steve."

"Wi…." Nancy started but stopped when she heard Li's comment, "You planned it that way?"

"I am not as stupid as I look, huh?" Li said smugly.

"I wouldn't go that far." Nancy started, "I mean you wouldn't even look at the woman and you expected that to go well? I thought she was someone you cared about?"

"She is." Li said, "The further away she is from all of this, the better I will feel."

"_Sou Hai_." Nancy sighed, "Sometimes I even wonder how you and…"

Don't even finish that sentence." Li said coldly as Nancy stopped herself, "Don't even bring _her_ up."

Nancy took a moment and said, "Is that why you decided to be that way towards Angela?"

Li didn't say anything at first but instead of answering her question he just said, "Let's just do what we have to do."

Nancy let Li walk a few steps ahead of her while she just looked on at him with a hint of pity in her eyes. She had known Li for a few months since she ran into him in Japan and found out that he was a member of the Dai Tribe like she was; but where she had been willing to learn what she had been chosen to do; her partner was a little more driven by his reasons to fight. Especially when it came to protecting the people he cared about.

From what she was told by Li's friends in Tokyo; he was in love with a woman named Misato Komuro and she was killed in an incident that was known by the Japanese Press as the Shin-Ju Massacre. It was considered to be a horrific attack on a Japanese school as 50 people were killed when a mysterious assailant. The truth of that matter was a Gorma attacked his mother, followed by his girlfriend and the school. It was up to Li to be the one to confront it, he managed to repel the creature before it caused further harm; but he hasn't forgiven himself for what happened to his classmates or those close to him. Pushing away some and forcing himself to fight on.

She thought Li was being an idiot right now especially after the whole Angela ordeal; deep down she knew he was happy to see her but she thought that he could have at least handled it a little better than just play a coward and use that as a way for them to make sure she and the others would be all right. She walked out of the store and followed Li who was already heading in the direction that Steve and the others had left, wondering to herself if her friend would ever be normal.


	6. Chapter 6: The Battle has Begun

_The center of the Mall. _

Steve wondered what he was doing here, the last thing he wanted to do besides keep an eye on these people. He wasn't too fond of Angela, since she was his superior officer in the ROTC. Lola he thought was a little annoying at times even though he thought it was funny whenever she got on Li's nerves. Mishelle, on the other hand he thought was someone who was very cool and earned her reputation of being someone who would always do the right thing. As to his idea of following after his harebrained stunt went into action; he found some major flaws with it, but at the same time it was one way to keep an eye on the three of them at close range.

His involvement with Li, Nancy, and Nick began a few weeks ago when he ran into some strange looking creature that tried to make short work of him and Nick while they were testing some car he was working on in Santa Ana. Tommy's older sister, Tonya was also there when it all went down and she watched how the two of them managed to fight it off. That was when she revealed to them that they were chosen to be combat more like them. Since then there had not been that much action, until today. He still wondered about why they would have to watch over Mishelle, Lola, and as Steve called Angela, 'Commodore Crabby'.

Angela stopped in the center of the mall, standing still for a long time oblivious to the people or the band that was playing nearby her as she silently kept back her tears from at the way she had just ran into Li. It was not the reunion she hoped for, but she did not think that he would be such an ass.

"That was not how I wanted it to go." Angela said as Mishelle stopped beside her, "I did not want to walk out of there."

Mishelle took a deep breath and said, "Maybe he did not want to hurt by letting you know he was here and then he would just have to leave."

"I know that he has been through a lot lately, but at least I thought he would have told me he was coming out here." Angela said.

Steve may have not liked Angela Steele that much but he did feel bad as he watched her feel hurt by how she was by Li telling her that he wasn't sure if he was going to stay. For years he watched those two play games with each other on their own feelings; and he was really sick and tired of it.

Personally he would have loved to hit Li for what he said, which also made him decide to go against how he felt and say something, "You do know how hard it is for him to be out here right now, don't you? It wasn't that long ago that he watched the people he loved and cared about die as he stood there and couldn't do a damn thing about it. I am sure being out here is tough for him too, and that as much as I am sure he is happy to see you; I don't think he wants you to be too close because he might be afraid to lose you too."

Angela opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of the young man with the band singing his song, at first she was about to pay it no mind but she couldn't as she heard the man's voice begin to sing in a foreign language that she immediately recognized as Japanese:

_Suki Desu Suki Desu Kokoro kara, aishite imasuyoto, amai kotoba no urani ha hitori garashino samishisa ga atta…._

Steve slowly turned around to face the band as he heard those words being sung, he remembered what Nick had told him about the incident at the beach with Amika and how that there was a Japanese song being sung before the creature attacked them. He looked around the center of the mall and saw that there were groups of people surrounding the band listening to the song that he was singing. He slowly looked back towards the three women who were with him and felt his heart beating fast as he knew that they were now in the middle of something bad.

"Steve, are you okay?" Mishelle asked immediately knowing that something was not right with her friend.

Before Steve could react, the sounds of people screaming filled the mall, the people inside started to panic and run in different directions, he tried to see what exactly was going on, but he found himself being thrown back by a brown and white blur hitting him from behind and landing near the JC Penny's entrance. A little dazed and confused he could not tell what really was going on, but he knew that he was definitely needed in this situation.

With a flick of his wrist he pulled out his Aurachanger and prepared to activate it, he was nervous and with every right to be but he put that aside since he knew that he was chosen to do this and screamed, "Kiryoku Tenshin!"

Mishelle stood in front of Angela and Lola, not sure what she was going to do but she knew that she had to find a way to help get as many people out of the mall as quick as possible.

"Angela!" Mishelle screamed, "You and Lola help get as many people as you can out of here before that thing tries to get anyone else!"

"What about you?!" Angela asked, knowing where this was all going.

"I'm trying to buy you some time to do your job!" Mishelle said grabbing a metal pole and heading towards where the people were screaming.

Angela and Lola immediately rushed towards a small group of children huddled in a corner crying for their parents to come for them. They did not see anyone rushing towards them to help, but knew that they had to protect them as long as they could.

Lola grabbed one of the children who was crying uncontrollably and did her best to soothe them while they looked for a way to escape from the mall, "How far are we from the car?"

Angela screamed, "We can't put all these kids in the car, we got find someplace safe until help arrives."

"But what about that thing?" Lola asked.

"We have no choice we got to head somewhere before…" Angela started but was stopped midsentence as she felt the air escape from her lungs and her body being lifted off the ground. She took a look back and saw that the tentacle had grabbed her. She took a look back and saw another tentacle nearby, but this one had an opening at the end of it, with sharp razor teeth. She tried to break free before this thing would try to kill her; she struggled and screamed, doing her best to fight back, but it was not having any effect. She closed her eyes hoping that her death would be quick, but instead of being pulled in, she felt herself being dropped onto the ground.

"Ang, are you all right?" Lola asked checking on her friend.

"Yeah, what just happened?" Angela asked when she saw Lola pointing to two figures standing in front of them, a man and a woman.

Both figures wore helmets which had different symbols on them. The one in the pink had what looked like a firebird on the front, while the one in the yellow had what appeared to be a Kirin. They both wore white vests with gold trim but pink one had a skirt that continued with hers, and each had a symbol on their left breast which was a circle with a line split vertically in the middle with five colors on one half, and on the other what appeared to be a "D".

"You are not going any further!" The yellow figure said.

"I can't believe it." The band member said transforming back into his human guise of Dansaku and looked excited at the fact that these two people were confronting him, "Well I have always wanted to go up against Dai Warriors."

"Then this is definitely your lucky day!" Another warrior dressed in blue with the same kind of costume as the yellow and pink fighters appeared with some type of pistol in his hand pointed at Dansaku.

"Kirin, I want you to take that group of people to safety while we deal with this guy." The pink one said to the yellow before she summoned forth a weapon that looked like a bo-staff and charged after the Gorma with the blue one following; leaving the Yellow one to take the other two to safety.

"You got it!" The yellow one, Kirin said as he helped Angela up and motioned for her, Lola and the children to follow him.


	7. Chapter 7: Rumble in the Mall Part One

_Off of Lakewood Blvd and Arbor Road_

Nick looked patiently up at the red light shining above him, hoping that it would change soon. After he told Steve about the incident at the beach he headed straight towards the Mall to meet up with Li and the others. He hoped that helping them would keep him calm about what happened to Amika, unfortunately it did the opposite. All that was on his mind was getting her back and taking out the thing that attacked him. Then maybe he would be able to tell her some of the things that ran through his head.

It just made no sense to him that they would take her, but what really made sense about a creature that had faceless minions dressed in tuxedos come after him like that. A couple of weeks ago, he was just an ordinary surfer boy who was happier chasing the waves on the coast, until the moment he got involved with this whole hero business. He initially wanted to say no to it all, but something deep down inside of his soul told him that he needed to stay on this path and see it through. He just did not expect that it would begin this suddenly.

He heard the horn of the car behind him beginning to honk for him to go, slowly he moved past the light and continued towards the Mall. He had not heard anything from Steve or their new allies, Li or Nancy for about the past ten minutes. Was the surveillance going well? Or was there something else going on? The answer to his question did not take long to answer when he heard the sound of cars crashing a few meters in front of him.

His stomach jolted when he saw a Honda Accord station wagon crash into the back of a 53 foot trailer, the front of the vehicle crumpled into the trailer and the driver of the car and his passenger flew through the windshield and into the back of the trailer while the three children in the back were smashed into the back seat from the kinetic force of the impact. Nick immediately got out of his car, his eyes wide from the carnage that was in front of him. Unfortunately that was only the beginning as other cars began to crash in the opposite lane. Vehicles were flying into each other and some losing control and landing into local shops and pedestrians too slow to avoid.

He took one more look at the traffic in front of him and noticed the rush of traffic leaving from the direction of the Mall. The uneasy feeling in his stomach began to grow when he realized that something was already happening over there. He looked at his Aura Spader and moved it towards his mouth and activated the communicator.

"Steve!" Nick screamed, "What the hell is going on over there?"

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Steve screamed, "The Gorma are here…"

The commlink went silent and suddenly from the direction of the Mall was the sound of a large explosion. Quietly, he looked on at the explosion and felt the need to swallow knowing that things were about to get a lot worse before they would get any better.

_Lakewood Mall_

_East side of the mall_

_Ten minutes earlier _

The yellow clad warrior known as the Kirin Ranger charged through the ranks of Copotros in order to make a path for the small group of children that were depending on him for help. With the precise movement of a killer, he blocked, punched and kicked his way through the Gorma minions with everything that he had. He took a second to look back at Angela and saw that she was doing everything she could to keep the children safe from harm.

"Hey!" Angela screamed to the Kirin Ranger while he was still fighting off their attackers, "We got to get moving!"

The Kirin Ranger grabbed one more Copotros by its neck and proceeded to lunge its face into his knee, "I am doing the best that I can here, if you want to fight these guys then be my guest!"

Three of these creatures charged towards Angela and tried to attack her, but she moved herself back a couple of inches and grabbed one by the arm and threw it down. Another came towards her and she moved out of the way and used her left leg to kick it into a couple more of those creatures. She continued to fight her way out of the situation managing to keep her own in this small battle.

Angela heard a rip of her shirt as one of them tried to grab on to her and moved herself back and let the article of clothing come off of her to reveal the white sports bra she was wearing and jumped into the air sending the thing falling to the ground and redressed herself in the middle of the action.

Moving herself into a tiger fighting stance, she took another look at the Copotros and saw that more were coming. That was when the Kirin Ranger jumped into the middle of the fight taking out more Copotros as possible while Angela motioned for Lola to bring the children through the fight while she pushed the rest of them back and took the rear while their yellow clad protector continued to keep them back.

Underneath his helmet, the man known as Tommy Xiao Li smiled at what he had just seen. He was totally amazed that Angela Steele, a woman he considered one of his closest friends, was able to fight her way through some of the Gorma like he was able to. He had been gone for so long, but never in a million years did he think that he would come back to find her to be capable of the things that he had seen.

He continued on towards the group and realized that things were definitely going to be interesting.

_On the Other Side of the Mall_

Mishelle turned back towards where the mysterious multi colored fighters were dealing with whatever that thing was that tried to attack the other shoppers. She knew she wanted to help them, but there was no real way for her to fight it. Deep inside of her she felt a need to do something to help with the situation,

Instead she decided to do the next best thing, and that was to aid the Mall security help the other shoppers who were nearby to safety. Without hesitation she motioned for everyone else towards the Mall exit guiding them out towards safety. She heard more screams coming from nearby, the remaining people trying to flee were being chased by a group of Copotros chasing them with their swords in their hands. Without hesitation, she raced through the crowds of people towards the new threat in front of them and prepared herself for what happened next. She did not know if she was going to win or if she was going to die, all she knew was that she needed to buy some time.

Immediately, she crashed into the first Copotros and a few others fell down into the ground behind them. Without a thought for the situation she was in her first reaction was to grab one of the weapons on the ground and jumped up into the air, her eyes narrowed knowing that this was the moment she was waiting for, a chance to prove that she could be like all the female fighters that she read throughout history. She started swinging the black weapon at the foot soldiers, hitting some of them while the others were trying to keep back and wait for an opening for them to either kill or capture her. Before they could make their next move, a loud crash was heard from nearby and more of the Gorma foot soldiers were seen being thrust into the air from that direction. Mishelle ducked down for a second from the debris of the blast and waited until she felt the blast subsided and saw two fighters dressed in colored suits fighting against the assailant who started the trouble. She was immersed in the fighting that was going on in front of her, watching these two fighters move swiftly while their enemy tried to keep up with them.

The blue warrior was known as the Tenma Ranger continued to fight on the offensive while his companion dressed in pink known as the Hou-ou Ranger, stood coiled like a viper ready to strike while Dansaku stood before them calculating his next move against these two warriors.

The Gorma Warrior felt his heart racing at the thought of going against two people of the Dai Tribe, it had been so long since he had a chance to go up against warriors of this caliber. His eyes glimmered with bloodlust, waiting to see who would make the first move.

"Are you gonna stand there like a reject from a kids show or are you gonna do something?" Tenma Ranger barked before moving into a fighting stance.

Dansaku arms stretched forward as their flesh color began to slowly change into brown and white tentacles and continued to head towards the two Rangers. Immediately, the Hou-ou and Tenma Ranger jumped out of the way as the tentacles watching the two appendages smashed into some of the nearby kiosks. Merchandise from the damaged booths flew in different directions and headed back towards the two Rangers.

Immediately, the two warriors picked themselves up and charged back towards their opponent and prepared to go on the offensive. Hou-Ou Ranger was the first to charge forth, reaching for the devices that were hooked on the holsters on her sides and combined them to make a blaster called a Daibuster and immediately aimed and shot at Dansaku. The discharge from the blaster hit its target and pushed him back from his spot.

_Inside the May Company _

_West Side of the Mall._

The warrior in yellow, also known as the Kirin Ranger scanned the area inside the empty department store in case more of the Gorma appeared to attack. This was the last thing that the man under the costume, Li wanted. He tried his best to keep Angela out of the fighting, but that failed miserably. He did not blame himself for that, in fact he was more impressed with the way that she was able to hold her own against the enemy. He took a deep breath underneath his helmet before he moved on and continued to walk through before taking a look back towards the others, ready for anything to happen.

Angela, however, was not fazed from the fight, instead she was more worried about her previous encounter with Li. She wondered where did he disappear to and was he able to make it out of the Mall or was he trying to find her and make sure she was safe and sound? The words that Steve said to her before the attack played in the back of her mind about how Li was still trying to cope with the things he saw back in Japan. All she wanted was to see him one more time and just tell him that she understood the reasons for him not wanting to hurt her.

Instead, she just remained silent following the yellow clad hero in front of her, she noticed the way he moved and walked in front of them like a soldier on patrol. She thought that was odd given that most people saw heroes as people who would walk into danger like it was a stroll into a park. Not this man, he was cautious and she always noticed that he took a moment to check on her like he knew her. She did admit that there was something about the way he turned back towards her that was familiar and

"I wanted to say thank you for saving us back there." Angela started.

The Kirin Ranger only looked forward, still keeping his eyes focused on the path in front of him, "I deserve no thanks for doing what is expected."

She heard something familiar from the man's voice, right now she could not place it but the words reminded her of Li, "That sounds like something a friend of mine would say."

Immediately without thinking the Kirin Ranger answered in his, "When it comes to you, Angela, you know that you would never have to say thank you."

An alarm went off in Angela's head at the mention of her name, "How do you know who I am?"

Li cursed under his breath realizing that he pretty much revealed himself to her and decided to just honest, "It's me, Angela, Li."

It took a moment for Angela to let the revelation sink in before she decided to move closer towards him, her green eyes began to burn into his visor., "Thomas?! What the hell are you doing in that thing?"

"Trying to save everyone here." Li said bluntly, "I promised you that I would not let anything happen to you."

"I didn't expect to see you dressed as some kind of Power Ranger knockoff." Angela's voice rose slightly, "But as you can see I can take care of myself!"

"I'm not saying you can't!" Li snapped back, "But this is not a game here!"

"Do you expect me to take you seriously looking like that?" Angela smirked.

Li sighed, "Sometimes gotta do things you never thought you would do in order to fight, in my case I have to use this in order to kick some ass. I don't mind it, especially since I have been doing this for a year."

"A year?" Angela almost screamed, but remembered the situation at hand, "When this is over you and I are gonna have a long talk."

"Why are you the one upset?! It's not like we are dating." Li whispered back and continued to look ahead towards the other side of the store towards the store's exit, He could feel Angela's gaze burning into his back, and that just made him shiver underneath his suit. For the moment, he decided to let that be.

Lola noticed the argument that was going on, especially the way that Angela was perturbed after the conversation, but decided to let it go since she was making sure the children that were with them were all right. Instead she looked towards the Kirin Ranger and asked, "Hey, you in the yellow? Do you think we will make it out of this alive?"

The Kirin Ranger rolled his eyes under his helmet and stared back at Lola, "You have nothing to worry about."

"That's reassuring." Lola smirked.

Angela still upset by Li's comment turned back towards her friend and replied, "Will you ever give it a rest? It's bad enough that we're stuck in this situation but do you have to make it worse with your commentary?"

"Sorry." Lola answered.

The Kirin Ranger smiled underneath his helmet, since he kind of felt the same way about Lola's remarks; He continued to scan the area making sure everything was all right; and he was ready to give the go ahead until he felt a few flying projectiles hitting against his uniform. He fell down to the ground writhing in pain as the attack left him a little dazed. He looked up in front of him and saw that he was greeted by a group of Copotros; the revelation surprised him given that he did not think that there would be a small group of them this far away from the fight. Immediately, the Kirin Ranger picked himself up and prepared to charge forth, but remembered that he had the group of civilians to worry about and could not rush out and do something careless. No, he had to be cautious about all of this and make sure everyone got out of this in one piece.

Angela rushed to Li's side and helped him up; at first he wanted to say something but knew that this was neither the time nor the place to begin more idle conversation. He moved into a drunken fist stance and prepared to fight.

"I need to keep these guys busy." The Kirin Ranger said coolly towards Angela, "Do you think you can get these people out of here?"

Angela cracked her knuckles and her demeanor changed from being the ROTC cadet that she usually was to a battle hardened fighter, surprising Li immediately, "I'm not the same girl you last saw all those years ago. You take care of what you need to do; and I will get them out of here. Just remember, when this is over, your ass is mine."

"I am looking forward to it." Li said sarcastically and went into a defensive stance, "Now get out of here!"

"You heard him, let's go!" Lola said watching Angela take the lead and start to move the children to safety.

"All right you bastards, let's do this!" Kirin Ranger screamed rushing into battle sliding down onto the ground past the small squad of Copotros and turned his body around until he was on his stomach and pushed himself back up and stood as a buffer between the civilians and the enemy.

Angela took a look back to see Li charge forth into battle, wishing that there was something she could do to help. Instead she said a silent prayer for his protection and ran off to join Lola in protecting the children.


	8. Chapter 8: Rumble in the Mall Part Two

This was not the day Angela Steele was hoping for.

When she woke up this morning she hoped that she would be able to just spend the day with her friends and do some shopping before she went home and prepared to go to church the next day. Instead, she ran into someone that she never thought she would see again only to have that overshadowed by some kind of invasion of these weird soldiers and some other type of creature wanting to cause which was more than likely the one who caused those strange disappearances Lola mentioned.

That was only the just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the other surprise of the day was the whole fact that her friend, Li was now fighting as some kind of violent Power Ranger in the middle of the Mall with two others. Although, she did think that it was strange, there was something almost right about seeing him dressed like that and doing the things he was capable of doing. This did not mean that she was not going to still chew him out when this was all over.

She kept her feet moving towards the door as she turned away from the Kirin Ranger attacking the black clad soldiers trying to come and attack them. She still tried to comprehend the situation that was at hand and knew that later on she might be able to come to terms with all of this. However, this was not the time when she knew that she had to also make sure that the children in front of her were going to be safe. She continued out of the door seeing that Lola and the children were in the stopped waiting for her, huddled against one of the walls, seeing the chaos that was still ensuing in the parking lot.

Immediately, her eyes focused on a Dodge Caravan crashing into a light post. The front crumpling like a soda can on impact hundred yards away from their position an older model Ford Escort careened out of control, the driver trying to keep control while being chased by more of Copotros from behind. The car continued past her towards the street before she saw one of the black clad focus its attention on her.

Angela felt herself move back from the warrior only so slightly before she felt something strange take over her body like she was becoming detached from the situation and was now working only on pure instinct. Within a split second, she moved back into an offensive stance when she noticed that the creatures were charging towards her. She charged into the fight using her left hand to grab the Copotros by the arm and swing him back into the others that were coming to join their comrade in battle.

She moved her right hand on the ripped article of clothing she still decided to wear and threw it on the ground, deciding that she needed to be mobile in order to fight. She thought about how Li and the other two protecting them in the Mall and she knew that she had to do the same for these children who were still waiting for her to give the signal to move.

Immediately, Angela picked up a sword that was on the ground and pointed it at the foot soldiers coming towards her. She did not have much experience with a weapon like this, but the next moment she felt her hands moving on their own as she slashed into the first one watching the blade slice through the creature like it was nothing more than butter.

She looked back towards the second Copotros swinging its sword towards her and she immediately ducked below the blade and moved hers towards the creature's groin and quickly worked her way upward towards the head, watching the creature split in two. Green fluid now covered her body, but she did not care as she turned around and proceeded to slice her way through some more in total samurai fashion.

Body parts and other viscera flew all over the place in the wake of her attack. Arms, legs, limbs, and other parts landed on the sidewalk that was now drenched in the strange green color that came from her victims. She turned around for one final blow against a Copotros by beheading him in a swift and brutal manner.

The detached feeling slowly began to subside from her and she turned back around to see that Lola and the kids were now frozen at the sight they had just seen. Angela slowly moved her hand back and motioned for the group to move and keep going.

"What the hell was that?" Lola asked shakily.

Angela looked down at the blood on her body, trying to keep herself together, "I-I don't know either, it was like there was something inside me saying that I had to do that."

Lola eyed her friend, "Are you going to be okay?"

Angela focused on the sword in her hand, sensing something more from the weapon in her hand like she was meant to have something like this. She could sense it, but for now there were more important things going on than this feeling she felt.

She took a deep breath and looked towards a nearby McDonalds, "Let's get these kids out of here."

_Inside the Mall_

The Kirin Ranger pulled out the weapons that were place on his sides and combined them together to make a pistol known as a Daibuster. Quickly he moved the weapon in front of him and started firing; each shot hit its target with complete accuracy and the Copotros began falling immediately. He looked towards the direction that Angela left and proceeded to head in the same direction until he felt something hitting him from behind and catapulting him a few feet into the air over some of the clothing departments and straight into a display case full of jewelry.

Glass flew into the air like stars scattering across the heavens until they landed on the ground. He had always wondered what it would be like to soar into the air like Superman, but being thrown like that was not the way he wanted to experience it. Slowly, he picked himself up from the display and then slowly stood up to see what was going on around him. There was another enemy here in the room with him, and apparently it was not one of the usual thugs that the Gorma sent out to do their grunt work. This was someone else.

"All right…" The Kirin Ranger started and scanned the store for anyone else.

SLAM!

He felt another sensation hitting him across the face and he fell down to the floor. If it wasn't for the helmet, he surely would be knocked out right now. Once more, he picked himself back up and took notice of his surroundings once more and noticed there was a blur coming towards him. He felt this blur grab him and push him through the display area, sending him flying through the remaining cases and into the Women's shoe department.

"_Owarimashita ka_?" A silvery feminine voice called out towards the Kirin Ranger.

He was down on the ground, but what surprised him was that the voice sounded singsong to him. He tried to keep his attention on the situation at hand. Was it another Gorma? No, this felt different, in some ways it felt a little familiar.

"_Mada Mada_." Kirin Ranger said flatly in Japanese picking himself back up off the floor before continuing in English, "Don't think I am going to be easy on you because you have boobs!"

A quick breeze whooshed past the Kirin Ranger as his opponent finally stopped four feet in front of him. It was definitely a woman, there was already no doubt about that in his mind given the voice he had heard. Japanese, of course but what surprised him was the fact that even though this was an opponent, he was more surprised by the graceful figure that had appeared before him. She had to be a least 5'2" or 5'4" at the most, which was average by Japanese standards, dressed in a blue and black ninja suit. Not the type that most Americans or even the average anime nerd would expect from a woman like her.

No, this was the real deal; even though the uniform looked like it was painted on to her slender but curved body. The way the pants were suffocating along the thighs and her hips. The curves continued upward to her breasts which were covered by a blue top that she wore over the suit. He noticed that they were not large like how he noticed some Americans had liked them nor were they small like he had seen with some of the women his age. The best way Li could describe it was that she was perfect or at least his definition of it.

From what little he could see of her face, her skin was pale, like the snow he used to see on Mt Fuji or in the Japan Alps when he was still living abroad, but the lower half of her face was covered by one of those shinobi masks that some of them wore. The fabric was also blue like the top she was wearing, but he could make out that she had petite but full lips, the kind that reminded him of a tulip in bloom and the small bump that was her nose which seemed to compliment what he could make out of her round but apparently smooth face.

The one thing that almost took his breath away under his helmet was her eyes. They were almost teardrop shaped with eyelashes that remind him of a feather off of a youngling, and the color of her irises, they were blue! That was a rarity within itself when it came to Asians in general; but these eyes were an almost ice blue that you would find around the fjords or glaciers in the most frigid of places. He looked into them seeing a coldness that came with preparing to fight, however he saw something beneath that which he could not make out, something personal.

The top of her head was mostly covered by a blue hood which kept her hair from falling out with the exception of a few raven black strands that stopped a few centimeters above her eyebrows.

"I wasn't expecting anything of the sort." The woman said in perfect English but still kept that singsong silvery tone that continued to resonate within him, "Especially from someone like you, Kirin Ranger."

She knew who he was; usually he would be cautious but he was more flattered by this revelation, "You have me at a disadvantage."

"That's not important right now." The woman said, "Besides, pushing you was the only way to get your attention."

"My atten-? Since when did the Gorma care about getting someone's attention outside of killing someone?" The Kirin Ranger asked.

"I am not a Gorma, but you definitely need to get out of here before things get worse." There was a sense of urgency in the woman's voice, but she could tell by the Kirin Ranger's body movement that he wasn't totally buying it, "Same old hard headed, Li… No matter, if I am going to have to fight you in order to make you listen, then so be it!"

_The Battle_

_Three Minutes Earlier_

Mishelle placed her hand on top of her chest while she watched the fight continue in front of her. She was impressed at the fact that these two warriors dressed in those strange suits were continuing to press on their attack against the person who had caused the trouble. Her eyes watched while the two moved with such speed and strength when others would have not been able to do anything and would have been killed.

Her body began to tense up with the need to help, even though she did not know what it was that she could do against whatever was going on. Her mind raced back to the moment back in Little Hong Kong and how she wished she could be like the legendary Mulan and fight against insurmountable odds and protect people from things that could harm them. She was oblivious to the fact that she began to hold on to the staff even tighter to the point that it was beginning to bend.

The sensation in her body began to get even worse as she sensed something was not right. Without a moment to even think, she heard the sound of glass breaking nearby and saw another one of those brown tentacles heading towards her. She moved out of the way of the attack, with the staff still in her hand, but her head followed the tentacle as it continued to move past her into the wall over by where she was just standing.

She felt the heavy pounding of her heart trying to come through her body while she still kept her guard up for another tentacle. Her senses were at their peak right now, noticing every sound and sight around her. Another crash was heard from the nearby fight, but that was when she heard the sound of the tentacle coming at her again. This time she moved the staff in front of her and swatted at the projectile heading towards her.

It was all the time Dansaku needed in order to grab Mishelle around her waist and drag her in front of him to make her into a human shield. She tried to struggle of his grasp, but he continued tighten his hold on her.

"If you continue to move, I will kill you where you are" Dansaku answered when he took off his glasses and began to transform into something else. Slowly the flesh from his body began to transform into something more rope like in appearance and his head changed from a humanoid shape into a knot with one blue eye in the center and the rest of him became something rope like.

"Let her go!" The Hou-ou Ranger pointed her Daibuster at Dansaku, trying to target his eye.

"You are really willing to try to take a shot while I hold a hostage?" Dansaku asked tightening his grip on her.

Mishelle's breathing became labored when she felt the tentacle begin to constrict her more. She tried to break free with every ounce of strength but felt like she was getting nowhere. Deep within her body she felt something burning within her, something powerful. Almost like a presence that told her to not give up, she could not place what it was or where it was coming from, but something within her said to trust it.

_Wait for the right moment to attack, Mishelle…_

She did not know where the voice was coming from, but she tried her best to stay flaccid, waiting for the right moment to strike against her opponent. Meanwhile, she watched the two armored warriors on the other side, trying to figure out a way to rescue her from their opponent.

"What do you suggest we do?" The Tenma Ranger asked Hou-ou Ranger who was still focused on Dansaku, waiting for him to make a move.

"I'm going for it!" Hou-ou Ranger rushed towards Dansaku, launching everything she had towards him. The first hit pushed her opponent back and he slid a few feet before stopping himself and moved his free tentacle and smacked the Hou-ou Ranger with such speed that she flew into a nearby store.

Mishelle felt an anger building up inside her that she could not place, it continued to burn more as she watched the Tenma Ranger retaliate using every punch, kick and attack that he could muster to try to knock Dansaku down, it just seemed like it was an exercise in complete futility. She didn't know what she could do, but the more that she watched this blue warrior fight and fail. The more she felt the anger grow until it began to emit its own glow around her.

A red aura began to shine from within her almost like she became a red hot piece of charcoal. The glow began to burn at Dansaku's tentacle and in an instant he had released her from his grasp.

"What the hell!?" Dansaku screamed.

The glowing Mishelle felt like she had no control of her body. It was like something else was now taking control. At first she wanted to be afraid, but she felt that presence from within her. This time it was telling her to relax and she listened to it. Usually this would not be something a person would do, but given that she was being attacked by a kid with tentacles…She decided that it might be best to listen to the voice.

She watched her hands slowly move up from her sides and in front of her body. The red energy slowly heading towards the front of her hand, but the longer she kept her hands in this position; the energy continued to grow faster and manifest into a ball of energy the size of a baseball. Two more seconds passed and the power continued to grow towards the size of a dodge ball.

The Tenma Ranger moved back from the attack, he had seen too many shows to know that when this kind of revelation is revealed it is best to move back and pray to whatever deity you believe in that you just might live to see the next day.

A loud beep came from the position of where the Aurachanger would be and he lifted his gloved arm up to hear the sound of Nick trying to get a hold of him.

"Steve!" Nick's voice sounded garbled through the commlink, "What the hell's going on over there!?"

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Tenma Ranger screamed, "The Gorma are here and.."

Before the Tenma Ranger could finish his sentence Mishelle's fireball launched from her hands and towards Dansaku, hitting him in the solar plexus and sending him crashing into one of the nearby elevators. The blast caused an explosion that launched through the elevator shaft and sent the car flying through the roof, causing the structure to lose stability and begin to collapse in the concourse.

"Son of a bi-." Tenma Ranger started, but felt a hand grab him and pull him towards the JC Penney's entrance and further into the store to avoid the blast.

The fire continued to spread into the department store, reaching out into the first few sections of the men's and women's section and slowly move back into the main mall before it disappeared. The Tenma Ranger slowly picked himself up and just stared blankly at the area which was now blackened from the fire. Racks of clothing were burning or singed and there was no sound coming from the main concourse. He took one more look around before he saw the Hou-ou Ranger hit his helmet

"Are you trying to get your ass killed?!" Hou-ou Ranger screamed.

The Tenma Ranger was dumbfounded by his comrade's reaction, "You didn't have to hit me!"

"We got to get back out there and find out what just happened." Hou-ou Ranger grabbed the Tenma Ranger and dragged him back out into the Mall.

_May Company_

The fight between the Kirin Ranger and the woman continued while things were continuing to fall apart elsewhere. He tried to keep his focus on the situation at while his mind shifted between the identity of this mysterious woman and the fact that he thought she was attractive in every definition of the word. Luckily, for him Nancy was not here to witness the banter between them or else things would have gotten a lot more complicated.

Glass from display stands and mirrors crashed to the ground each time the two of them tried to hit each other. He was feeling a little frustrated by that. He wanted to get her out of the way and help his friends. She one the other hand tried her best to keep herself in check in order to hide the fact that she was enjoying this confrontation with him.

She landed a punch into the Kirin Ranger's helmet sending him doubling over into another rack of shoes one of them jabbing him in the back. He quickly grabbed it at her and threw it at her, and began to grab other shoes and launched them at her. She moved her arms up and began to block them in order to keep from getting hurt, which was the opening he was waiting for.

Before the woman could move her hands down to fight, she saw the yellow clad Ranger rush into her like an offensive lineman and send them flying into the women's clothing department. She yet out a small yell of pain as she felt her body flying into one of the nearby clothing turnstiles and breaking it with the force of their impact.

In a barrage of clothing, the two warriors continued to roll around the fallen clothing both of them trying to land more hits against the other even though it looked like the combatants were acting more like two people enjoying a roll down a hill while trying to tickle the other. The Kirin Ranger admitted to himself that he was enjoying this, which was the teenaged part of him. Underneath the smell of the sweat, he could smell lotus blossoms coming from her and that was a little distracting.

The rolling stopped in the middle of the jewelry department and immediately the two of them moved back. Their bodies showing a little bit of exhaustion, but their attitudes would not let the either show that they were tiring from their little tussle.

Again, the woman launched at him with moves and combinations that he blocked with all he could muster. One… Two… Three blocks were all he could do until he saw a fourth one hit him and push him back a few feet. He looked down for a couple of seconds and moved his hand on the ground to help him slow down looked back up towards her and saw that she was now running towards him with a katana in her hand. With only a split second to react he grabbed the device on his left holster and watched the outer edge protrude a blade long enough to help him counter her attack.

A loud clash was heard followed by sparks when the swords met. The woman eyes showed that she was impressed by this, but she did not let it faze her as she continued to swing at him, only to have him block once more. The two of them moved back with their weapons still poised and ready.

"This is pointless!" The woman said, her voice filled with frustration, "Do I really have to beat you in order for you to see what is going on around you?!"

"You were the one who was trying to attack me!" The Kirin Ranger barked at the woman.

The woman was about to say something until she heard a loud explosion coming from the other side of the Mall. The ground began to shake from the initial boom and she could hear the sound of glass breaking from the shock wave. She looked around inside the department store, sensing that the structure was probably still not entirely stable given that blast.

The Kirin Ranger, however, turned around to see the fireball that was coming from the direction of where Nancy and Steve were still fighting Dansaku. He stood there feeling the ground beginning to shake around him. His mind racing on what he needed to do next and being reminded of another moment from his life; Images of a school falling apart around him and explosions going off all around him and the face of a friend looking up at him with that blank cold expression of death frozen on their lifeless face.

His body froze from the memories of that day, the day he became involved in this fight and lost his friends and mother. He staggered for a moment unaware of where he was and what he was doing, his costume depowered to reveal a look of horror on his usually serious looking face. He was so lost in the horrors of his own past that he could not even notice that the ceiling was beginning to give way.

His opponent looked at the expression on his face and the hard exterior that she had when she fought him had changed into something else, more like genuine concern for what was happening to this young man. She looked up and saw the pieces were beginning to fall faster and the blast from the other side of the Mall was heading towards them.

Silently she muttered something in Japanese and dropped her katana before she sprinted towards Li and moved towards one of the nearby jewelry display cases and moved her hand up above her channeling the energy from within her body to form a protective shield above them, feeling the heat of the blast coming towards them until in engulfed the inside of the May Company and touched everything that could be consumed by its hot touch.

The woman held her hand up using her power to keep the shield above them while she took a look down at the semi catatonic young man who was now lying down on the ground incapacitated looking up at her. She turned back up towards the protective shield and cursed to herself wishing that the whole incident with Li did not happen this way.

She watched the blast begin to dissipate back towards the main concourse and waited a little longer to drop the shield until she knew that it was safe for her to proceed. She counted for thirty seconds until she saw that the situation had improved and dropped her hand down and continued focused her attention to Li.

Mishelle stood in the center of the explosion, untouched by the fire that had laid waste to a good portion of the Mall. All around her, stores that were a few minutes ago untouched by the battle were now reduced to rubble and whatever was left of them was now burning. She did not move at all, in fact her breathing was calm and she looked like she was waiting for something.

While her body was calm, her mind was feeling like it was being bombarded with so much information going through; pictures of places and events she had never seen before in her life. She wanted to scream out at what was going on, but she continued to stand there, waiting for a moment that felt like it was a lot longer.

Dansaku had reverted back to his human form and looked on in shock at the damage that had been caused in the battle. Although he was a Gorma and was more than willing to follow the orders of his superiors, he had to wonder what exactly it was that they were about to get into, and the woman that he used as a hostage; there was something different about her and that worried him more than he wanted to let on. He took this moment to fall back and report what had just happened to his commanders.

_May Company_

The young shinobi looked down at Li lying semi catatonic on the ground. This was not how she wanted this encounter to go and she didn't so much blame the young man on the ground as much as she did herself. Slowly, the young woman reached up with her right hand and pulled off the now suffocating mask away from the lower half of her face and took a deep breath in order to regain her senses before she carried the limp Li across the wreckage of the once beautiful department store.

She managed to move him halfway across the store towards the exit before she gently leaned him up against a nearby wall. Although this was not a total success, she still looked longingly at the young man, her eyes filled with something more than a mutual respect between warriors. Quickly, she leaned in towards him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Until next time, Wanderer." The woman said before she disappeared.

_McDonalds_

It did not take the two young women too long to make it across the street to the restaurant. Like most of the places that were near the Mall, they had emptied out when there appeared to be signs of something going on. Quickly, she opened the door into and motioned the children to walk inside and each of them found a seat to sit in while waiting to see what was going to happen next.

She walked across the restaurant towards the side leading away from the Mall and saw that the Lakewood Police, LA were already en route to try and keep the chaos to a minimum. For a moment, she looked back at the chaos that was still ensuing around the parking lot and wondered about the young man she knew was still fighting back inside

She did not want to totally admit it to herself, but she did like Li, always had since they met when they were younger. Yet, she was so focused on what she wanted to do with her life that she had always shied it off and let her feelings be unheard. Right now, however, she worried about him more than she had before.

"Angela?," Lola said, getting her immediate attention.

"Yeah?," It was the only thing she wanted to say right now.

"Are you all right?" Lola asked, holding a towel to help her friend wipe off the blood on her.

"Yeah, I am all right." Angela said wiping the blood off of her body, "I am just worried about Li."

"Worried?" Lola asked noticing the look of concern on the woman's face, "Given what I just saw him do in that Mall..."

"You heard us talking?" Angela felt a little embarrassed, "Whenever it comes to him, I don't always think straight."

"Look Angela, it is obvious how you feel about him." Lola said wiping the last of the blood she could get off of her friend, "Did you ever think that you should let him know what is in your heart?"

"I think that there are bigger things for him to worry about at the moment." Angela said coolly.

Lola sighed softly, "At the moment, but don't you think that you should talk to him about it?"

"He doesn't even show how he feels towards me." Angela answered sadly.

"Li fought off those things in order to protect us." Lola said directly, "More importantly, the guy came to protect you. I may not like the guy, but I know he did not have to do that at all."

"When we were younger, I used to be picked on by some of the school bullies because I was different. Thomas was the only one who would come to my rescue when no one else ever would. Even now he still comes to my rescue and he has fulfilled his promise to me a long time ago."

"Then you have your answer, Angela." Lola smiled, "His actions speak louder than his words ever could. The only thing left for you to do is let your actions speak for you."

Both women turned to hear a loud explosion come from the Mall, the windows in the restaurant began to shake violently from the shockwaves which caused the children to scream and cry. It was Lola that decided to take care of the children to keep them calm while Angela looked on at the Mall hoping that Li was all right.

Before she could collect her thoughts, she heard something else in the distance, something guttural and commanding. At first she thought it was another explosion from the Mall but it was something different; almost like an animal roaring. She heard the children's crying rise up once more but she ignored it and walked out of the restaurant to see where the sounds were coming from.

_Off of Lakewood and Arbor Blvd._

Nick did not know what to think when he heard that roar, it felt like it was something familiar but at the same time it was unknown to him. He heard the roar again and the sound made his chest pound quicker. He noticed that the clouds were now becoming darker, almost like a storm was on the approach. The sky began to rumble with thunder along with the roar of the creature, the sound was getting closer and he could tell that it was coming from the darkening clouds.

Nearby, other people looked around, trying to make sense of what they were hearing and the strange weather that was transpiring above them. Before the clouds darkened even further, a silhouette moved through them. At first, some people thought it might be an aircraft flying over, heading towards Long Beach Airport. Some thought it could be another attack from whoever was attacking the Mall.

What was about to happen next, would forever change things for both the city and the world. From the clouds, a large red mechanical creature swooped below towards the Mall. It was at least over 250 feet long and shaped like a giant dragon. It moved like one of those Chinese paper dragons one would see at a festival, but this was not a party favor in any way.

Nick looked on at the creature and muttered words that he knew had no real meaning for him, "Ryuu Sei Oh…"

Mishelle still stood calmly in the center of the Mall, not even sure of what was going on around her. That sensation within her told her that she needed to keep calm for something else was going to happen. Nearby, the Tenma and Hou-ou Ranger looked on at the woman, not even sure what they should do themselves.

It was then that the Hou-ou Ranger had looked up at the sky and noticed the giant dragon heading towards them, "The legends are true…."

Ryuu Sei Oh continued towards where Mishelle was standing and moved close enough to be able to move its head in and approach her. At first, the young woman wanted to scream; but she felt heard the voice telling her to remain calm. This time it was stronger than it had been, almost like it was coming from the creature that was approaching her. In an instant, she was taken into the robot's mouth and before either warrior could react, they were both gone.

Hou-ou Ranger looked on at the spot where the young woman had stood and was trying to comprehend what was going on. As a child, she had heard the stories of the mythical dragon that had protected the Dai Tribe and humanity during the ancient war. She had never thought that she would ever see it in person. She started jumping up in down, her body full of energy and started screaming in Chinese that it was all true and for her it meant that things were going to get a lot more exciting.

_RMS Queen Mary  
__Bow Section_

Shadam sensed the Ki energy being released further inland. He knew that the fight was beginning. Even though he was excited at the prospect of fighting against these warriors, he was cautious of what was to come. He had sensed Ryuu Sei Oh's presence as well and knew that it was now only a matter of time before this war would begin and like any general would; he would wait and see what his enemy was capable of before he would strike.


	9. Chapter 9: Regroup and Rethink

_Lakewood, California _

_June 1988_

Li did not know what he was doing wrong, his father and his sister trained him in everything that he knew. Usually he would be able to stop anyone that would get in his way, but this time there was nothing that he could do. He saw another swing coming towards him and blocked it immediately, but was not fast enough to avoid the one that was heading to his face. Stars flashed within his eyes and he could not make out anything that was going on around him, but he knew that he had to stand his ground. There was someone else's life at stake here and he had to make sure that the person he was protecting would be all right.

He tried to keep his focus looking at the three people standing in front of him. One of them, the main one that was pounding him was a tall lanky looking kid with a brown mullet with his hair spiked up at the top. He was wearing in a cyan Pierre Cardin shirt with a pair of stone washed looking jeans and a pair of driving gloves that he liked to use for fighting.

The other two tried to rush in, but Li continued to push them back using whatever he could to keep them at bay. Spiky hair continued to come at him and still managed to land a few hits on him, but there was still the person he was protecting. A young girl dressed like she wanted to be like Debbie Gibson or one of the people seen on the cover of Teen Machine or Tiger Beat. Her green eyes flashed with fear as she saw this young man in front of her taking a beating trying to protect her.

Li had seen her a few times in school and thought she was beautiful, not in the way one would look at Brooke Shields or Madonna, but she had a beauty of her own that he did admire. Not too long before he found himself to be the punching bag of spiky hair, he had noticed that this young woman was being harassed by the three of them for how she looked and they did not take it well when she kneed the leader right in the groin. That was when he decided to jump in to a fight he was not sure he could win, for this young woman he only knew by name, Angela Steele.

"Did you really think that you would get out of this?" Spiky Hair, otherwise known as Darian Cain laughed while he looked at the barely standing but still ready to fight Li.

Li, on the hand looked on with a fire in his eyes that he could not explain and stared down his opponent, "I don't give a fuck if I do. I am just tired of seeing you act like an asshole!"

Darian was not amused at the remark and resumed beating him. This was all that Li needed to get the upper hand. He noticed that the bully was now full of rage and used that to his advantage by crouching lower and grabbing the young man's genitals. A loud almost feminine scream was heard from the young man as he felt the most sensitive part of the male body be squeezed like it was a crumpled piece of paper with his right hand and squeezed with all of his might before he jumped up and punched the guy in the face.

Dillinger fell flat on the ground still screaming in pain, the two other kids that were helping him looked past their friend towards the young man that had just taken him down. Within a second they realized that it might just be a better idea to leave and before they could reconsider, they dragged their fried and left the area.

Li turned around to see the young woman he was protecting look at him with surprise in her eyes. At first she did not know what to even think of the sight of this young man covered in bruises and his clothing torn. Blood trickled out of his nose, but the funny thing about it was the she did not even know what to make of it all. No one had gone out of their way to protect her and it just surprised her that he did.

"Are you okay?" Li asked.

Angela nodded, "Yeah, the question is are you?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Li smiled before he felt the world spinning around him and suddenly turn dark. He did not feel the thud of him falling to the ground nor did he hear Angela screaming for his well being.

_1993: Lakewood Mall_

Li wondered why he was thinking about the first time he truly met Angela. It was so long ago when he rescued her from that guy. In fact he felt like it was another life, another person that saved that young woman from Darian Cain. The young man he was now, felt like a completely different creature all together. Yet like that young man he used to be, he shared the same fate of collapsing on the ground. This time instead of some forgotten place he was now collapsed at the entrance of the May Company while it sounded like there were other things going on around him. If he could laugh, he would have knowing that even after the craziness of today, he was still thinking about the young woman that became one of his closest friends. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud screeching sound that shook the very ground he was on.

_What was that sound? Was it a roar?!_

Ryuu Sei Oh continued on its way from the battle damaged Mall with its passenger inside. The creature had a purpose to fulfill and the further it was away from this area, the sooner things would continue to fall into place.

_So much had happened in the past few hours, it's hard to believe that I am home…_

How long had he been out? What was going on around him? Was Angela and the others all right? What about the fight with the Gorma? What about the mysterious woman who fought him? All these questions continued to rush around in his mind. His mind continued to focus on the woman, however; he still wondered why the mysterious shinobi that did everything in her power to get his attention. Why would she even go to those lengths to distract him?

_Until Next Time, Wanderer.._

Those were the last words he remembers hearing from the woman...That beautiful woman who fought him and then rescued him from his own stupidity.

Li stirred slightly, trying to make himself come to, he had known that something happened to him when that explosion happened. Did he have another flashback of what happened at his old school? He was not totally sure about the whole situation, but he knew that he was in his Kirin Ranger uniform before he found himself here.

Sometimes, a certain event would trigger Li's memories of the first time he transformed into the Kirin Ranger. Memories that he felt were drenched in blood, people dying and being torn apart by the Gorma. That same day was when his mother was being brutally beaten by these creatures that had no sense of remorse for what they did to others. At least that was what he felt when it came to dealing with them.

_I need to find out who this woman is…_

He slowly opened his eyes, everything was still out of focus for a few moments before everything became more defined and he could finally see the devastation of the Mall and the battle in its entirety. Clothing and other merchandise were still burning up and there was a strange smell in the air. Could it be the chemicals from the stuff burning? He did not want to waste time and tried to stand up, at first he felt a little unbalanced and gave himself a moment before he finally headed out the door to see the carnage left behind from another fighter. He took one more look at the body parts and green blood that was splattered across the street before he walked past it and took in the damage that was caused by the attack. Was it the shinobi that fought him or was it someone else?

He looked around and noticed the damage to the Mall was just as bad on the outside as well as the damage caused by the fighting on the inside. Slowly, he navigated through the parking lot wondering where Angela and Lola had disappeared to. He hoped that they weren't caught up in the middle of the chaos that happened out here.

Li heard another roar come from the sky as his attention was drawn upward. He scanned the sky for any sign of where it was coming from and that was when he saw the massive silhouette of a giant dragon flying through the sky heading away from the area. His jaw dropped when he realized that this large creature was none other than the mythical Ryuu Sei Oh. The way the giant dragon moved through the sky and continued on its way just captivated him, it was a sign that things might be a little better in this crazed storm that was still continuing to form all around him.

He felt his legs begin to give way underneath him and the world around him suddenly shifted back to the ground. Instead of the sky he saw the ground and the debris from what remained of the Mall surround him. That was when he realized that he collapsed back on the ground. Apparently, he was not totally recovered from his panic attack from earlier. Even though Li had tried to not let these moments of shock get to him, there were times that it just felt like it was too much to handle.

He heard the sound of a familiar voice calling his name, he tried to focus on the sound of that voice, but it just kept getting further and further away from him. Before he totally felt himself slipping further and further away from the voice, he saw the familiar face of Angela Steele rushing up to him and trying to get his attention. Why did he get her involved in this? That was not what he wanted for her; he did not want this fight to come to home. This was the last safe place he had and not that was gone. Perhaps that was the nature of the beast, which was why he was needed to be a Dairanger and protect those that would need protecting.

He pondered more on that the more he continued to slip away letting the world around him slowly turn to white noise.

_RMS Queen Mary. _

Dansaku was afraid to return to report to his commander about what had just happened at the Mall, but he knew that he had to tell Shadam something because not saying nothing was even worse. He walked quietly across the deck of the ship towards the table where he saw the three Gorma generals still sitting there, quietly waiting for their subordinate to return.

"It was expected that you would not fare well against our enemies." Shadam said calmly, "I don't care about the loss, since it gave us an opportunity to learn something."

Dansaku was speechless to hear that Shadam was expecting that going the way he did, but he still stood quietly waiting for his leader's next orders.

"So, the Dai Tribe has sent their warriors out to fight for them." Shadam thought to himself, "From what I have heard, the team is not complete. In fact, they were only four of them."

Gara looked quietly at the city before she decided to answer, "Then the reason you even planned these attacks was just to gauge them."

Shadam nodded quietly, "I am not going into this like some clichéd warrior and wreaking havoc on the population. I want to see what they are capable of and how we can take them out strategically rather than just randomly going for some plan and hoping it works. I may not agree with what our superiors are planning, but I would rather have a fighting chance against our enemies than fighting stupid."

"Then what do you suggest we do next?" Zydos asked.

Shadam continued to stay quiet for a moment, formulating strategies in his mind. Until finally he had one, "We will let Dansaku continue to attack, but at the same time we will have smaller attacks going on in different places. Not enough to cause too much damage to the city, but enough to where the casualties to the civilian populace are minimal. I do not want to cause a blood bath yet. I want to know what each of these warriors is capable of."

_Lakewood Mall_

It took Nick some time to make it across the parking lot towards the mall. With some clever navigation around the chaos that ensued after Dansaku's attack on the shoppers and the arrival of that giant Red Dragon. He knew that there was going to be a lot to be discussed by the time he met up with the others.

Out of his windshield he saw that the damage done to the Mall was not severe but there were signs of automobile wreckage, the viscera of people who were either trampled by foot or automobile. Cars either smashed into each other or covered with debris and dust from the explosion. There were still people roaming around the parking lot trying to find people or loved ones that they lost in the commotion. Nick sighed softly while scanning to find a small group of people over by the May Company, immediately he recognized Angela and Lola immediately and saw both young women trying to position someone on the ground into a sitting position.

Immediately, he recognized the figure on the ground to be none other than Li looking like he went ten rounds with a steam roller and barely won. Nick pulled his car up the closest he could get to the small group and walked out. He noticed that Angela herself was covered in some strange green liquid and her clothing looked like she had been through battle as well. However, his main concern was how his teammate sat there distant from all that was around him. From what he remembered of Li, he was always full of energy after a fight. Here the young man he saw looked like he was trying to keep some kind of balance together before he snapped.

"What the hell happened?" Nick asked apparently surprised by the whole scene in front of him.

Lola turned towards Nick at first ready to say something smart, until she noticed the strange device on his arm and looked back at Li's wrists and saw the same thing, "He just collapsed."

Nick rushed over towards Angela's side and returned back to his calm demeanor and still tried to surmise the situation, "Was he hit?"

"It doesn't look like it." Angela answered; her concern was for the semi catatonic young man on her face. She tried to get his attention any way she could, calling his name and doing whatever she could to get him out of it. This was the opposite of what she was expecting, slowly she moved closer towards him, the once tough demeanor she had when she was trying to get out of the Mall had changed to complete concern over this long lost friend who had came back into her life.

Immediately, Angela jumped when she felt someone grab her by the shoulder. She turned back to see the Asian woman that was with Li earlier at the Mall, Nancy Wu. Both women stared at each other with slight apprehension until they noticed that they were both concerned about Li.

Angela was direct, "All I want to do is help him."

"I know you do." Nancy started and moved towards Li and grabbed his hands, "But, this is something only I can do."

Nancy looked back towards Angela for a moment, just to take a look at the expression on her face. At first, she wasn't sure of what to make of this woman; this woman that Li felt an urge to protect from the moment they found out that they were coming to America. She understood it, this was his home and she was one of the people he cared about. Who wouldn't want to do everything they could for someone close to them. A part of her wished that she and Li were like that as well, granted that they were teammates and have been fighting alongside each other for the past year. Going up against anything that was related to the Gorma or their allies, but there were also times that the tension between them persuaded them to cross some lines that others wouldn't dare to.

When that moment happened, Nancy vowed to herself to just keep it simple. Almost like they were doing a favor to each other; at least that was how she wanted to view it. She saw Li as a little too damaged for her, especially given the factors that contributed into him becoming the Kirin Ranger. It wasn't like she didn't care for him; she genuinely did and there were times that she wished that it would blossom into something more than just that itch to scratch. She hoped that someday it would, but for right now she had other concerns that needed to be addressed.

Quietly, she looked down at the catatonic young man and shook her head lightly. Not so much for embarrassment over the situation, but more so for wishing that there was a way to truly get Li out of the darkness that still plagued him. She looked down at his hands and began to gently move them into hers. Slowly she tightened her grip and he began to move his head up to meet her gaze that was when she began to say, "Nǐ bìng bù gūdān_. (_Translation: You are not alone.")

Slowly, the blank look on Li's face began to change, his eyes began to show signs that he was becoming aware of his surroundings. He slowly looked to the left and saw Angela standing behind her, looking like she wasn't sure whether to cry or to be angry at him for what had just happened to him. On the opposite side were Nick, Lola and Steve coming closer towards the group to see what was going on.

Yet, it was the look on Nancy's face that was what bothered him the most. She looked on at Li like she wanted to do something more to help him. That had always made him feel even worse whenever he came out of these spells. Now, Angela and the others have seen him like this; it was the last thing he wanted.

"You okay, Xiao?" Nancy asked, seeing Li's apparent embarrassment at being seen so compromised.

Li nodded slightly before Nancy moved away from him.

"What happened?" Steve asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Li answered and looked towards Nick, "Looks like the Gorma wanted to let us know they were around."

"I think we got the message." Nick looked at the mall before he continued, "What about that giant red dragon that swooped in."

Nancy immediately interrupted, "That was Ryuu Sei Oh! He's with us."

Li perked up at that, "Seriously?! That was _the_ legendary Ryuu Sei Oh?! The legendary Kiden Juu that helped save humanity?"

Angela finally decided to voice her concern, "What in the hell is going on around here ?! First weird creatures try to kill me.." She immediately points a finger at Li, "Then you transform into something that looks like a Power Ranger and then a giant dragon comes out of the sky! Did I just go insane and I just didn't know it?"

"Well." Nick started, "I can tell you that the people who attacked the Mall are called the Gorma. They attacked me earlier this morning and I asked Li, Steve and Nancy to make sure that you and your friends were all right."

Something did not add up and Angela knew it, "How did you know that they were going to be attacking us?"

Nick continued, "We didn't, for all we knew is that they were going to go after places that had concentrations of people. For all we knew they could have attacked Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm and the result would have been the same."

Steve knew that Nick was lying about the whys; how could you tell a person that the reason they were being targeted was for the simple fact that they might be linked to their team. This was probably why Mishelle was taken by Ryuu Sei Oh and it would also explain why Nancy was excited about the whole revelation of a giant dragon appearing out of the sky.

"So, you guys were just playing it on a whim?" Angela asked, "What would you have done if they did attack someplace else?"

"We would have acted on it of course." Nick answered.

"Glad to see that you guys are on top of it!" Lola answered.

"If we weren't here more people would have died." Steve screamed back, "You seem to forget that we saved your lives back there."

Li picked himself off the ground before he walked over towards Angela. He took a moment to collect his thoughts and finally answered, "We did the only thing we could do."

"And people still got hurt and killed." Angela's eyes were focused on Li, "Not too

smart-."

"What would you have done?!" Nancy asked, "Last I saw, you weren't much help when things went down."

"Probably more than the four of you could have done!" Angela screamed at her, "We probably would have been better off if you didn't do anything at all. All your fighting destroyed most of the Mall, not to mention the fact that you guys knew what was coming and still waited to act on it."

Angela focused her attention back on Li, "I saw you following us in Little Hong Kong, Where was your willingness to protect us then, Thomas?! Why did you decide to wait in the shadows rather than let us know we were in danger? Did you get some kind of thrill just watching and waiting to come to my rescue?! Are you still living that fantasy where I come in to your arms—"

Before Angela could even say the next word, she felt something hard hit her in the face. She jolted back from the sting and immediately looked back to see Li standing over her, holding his left hand. She could not believe that he had hit her, before she could say something; she stopped herself and paid attention to the fact that he nursed the hand that he had hit her with.

His quiet demeanor had changed to something darker, colder than she had ever seen him be towards her, "You think that this was bad? You have not seen anything yet. What happened here today was nothing. A war is about to begin, the likes of which has never been seen before in modern times. The people who attacked us don't care about things like patriotism, ideology or anything like that. These people kill without a single thought for you or anyone in this world. We are here because no one else will be able to stop them.

Berate us or hate us; I don't care. As much as I know that you are angry at me for not telling you about this. That is not important. The only reason I am here is because I would rather die before I see these creatures kill anybody else."

Angela wanted to scream at him, anything to respond to the fact that he hit her, instead she noticed the pain that was in his eyes and the silence that filled the area as the others took in what Li had to say.

_Lakewood, California 1988_

"You know you have a lot of balls for doing what you did." Angela continued to dab Li with a wet cloth and wipe the wounds on his face.

The pressure being applied to his wounds made Li wince, "Three against one, I don't think that would be considered fair odds."

"Well you still got your ass kicked." Angela shook her head and took a moment to look up at the sky, "I heard you were crazy, but I did not think you were stupid."

Li's eyes lit up when Angela said that to him, "You know who I am?"

"Of course, there isn't anybody at Hoover who doesn't know of the crazy but well intentioned, Thomas Xiao Li." Angela smiled, "Besides, I see how you look at me."

Li blushed under his bruises and stayed silent.

"Thank you for helping me, Thomas." Angela smiled.

"Please, call me Li or Tommy." Li kindly replied back.

"I prefer Thomas."

The two continued to sit there on the bench, while one continued to tend to the other's wounds. It may have not been a normal encounter, but neither of them would never understand what this meeting would mean for both of them.

_Lakewood Mall 1993_

The sound of police sirens were heard in the distance as the local law enforcement decided to arrive to the scene. Nick decided it was time to break the silence and told the other three Rangers to head out. Nancy motioned her hand onto Li's shoulder and motioned for them to move out as well. Nothing more needed to be said, and he let the silence be the only thing between him and the woman he slapped.

Angela Steele, however, held her hand against her cheek and let the words Li said process through her mind. He had never raised a hand towards her, but the young man she remembered was someone else. The young man she had just seen go through a gamut of emotions was different. He had seen something that had changed him and made him into the young man that was now before her. She silently wept, not for what had happened to her or to the people that were around her. Instead, she wept for the young man she prayed to see once more, who had died the day he decided to put on an Aurachanger.


	10. Chapter 10: Master Kaku

Lola rushed in the direction of the four; she could not believe that Li of all people hit her friend. That was something she did not even see coming at all and she did not care about the fact that he had just saved their lives, she was going to give him a piece of her mind and maybe even get a punch in, if possible. She continued past Angela towards the direction of the others and clenched her fists the closer each of her steps brought her towards them. She focused on the furthest on the four, her target and continued until she noticed the one closest towards her, Nick Starr; stop her from going any further.

"Outta my way surfer boy!" Lola said ready to swing at him.

Nick's green eyes focused on Lola's instantly and she felt her body freeze with apprehension, "What good do you think it will do now to retaliate against a man who had just saved your life?"

"That asshole over there hit my best friend!" Lola screamed in the direction of Li, "What he did earlier has nothing to do with what had just happened!"

"Do you really believe that?" Nick answered, "Do you really believe that you have the right to attack a man who risked his life and saved you from what was in that Mall?"

"You're just defending Li because he is one of you!" Lola snarled.

"And you are defending Angela because you don't think she can when it comes to Li." Nick said guilelessly, "Which is admirable, but I don't think it is warranted."

"What do you…" Lola started but Nick moved his hand up to keep her from continuing.

"Look at what has just happened and do you think you two would have been better off without him or the others coming to save you? Do you think that even Angela with all her determination could have really made it out of there alive without him?"

Lola stood silent for a moment and knew that when it all came down to it, Angela was angry. Her friend cared for the guy and she didn't know how to show it without tearing into him. She sighed in defeat and said, "Yeah, we do owe him. But I just don't like how that went.

"None of us did." Nick confessed, "The man who saved you, is not the same Tommy Li we all knew a couple of years ago and I don't even think that guy is no longer around anymore. Go back to Angela and just be with her and tell her not to worry about Li, we'll make sure he'll come back in one piece."

Lola nodded quietly and continued back towards the direction of the approaching sirens and Angela. She took one more look back at the small group still walking towards the other side of the Mall, wondering what exactly it was they were going to do next.

"I can't believe that he slapped her." Steve Hart finally decided to let his presence be known to Nick after watching the whole conversation unfold in front of him. He had to admit he was still feeling a natural high from watching Li and Angela's conversation from earlier, but was more surprised by how Nick handled Lola.

Nick stayed silent for a moment watching Li and Nancy continue past them towards the area where they entered the Mall. Even though he was still new to this, he was very familiar with Tommy long before this day. Truth be told, he respected him for the craziness that he pulled when they were in Junior High. There wasn't a person at Hoover Jr. High that didn't remember the stories of the young idiot who got his butt kicked trying to do the right thing. He even saw one fight he had trying to protect a young woman from three people who were harassing her. The same young woman he had slapped just now. Would he have done the same to Amika if he was in Li's position? He wasn't too sure about that at the moment. Though he still wondered where exactly she was and would she still be alive when they found her. He didn't want to keep that thought close, instead he focused back on the present and the comment Steve had just made.

"He has been through a lot that much is obvious." Nick reflected looking towards Li and Nancy, "Those two had been fighting long before either of us. It just seems that he's fighting for something more than just the fate of the world."

"I get it." Steve moved up towards his friend, "He lost his mother and a whole bunch of friends; but I never thought he of all people would just slap Angela like that. I've wanted to, but those two have always been close. You should have saw him before everything went to shit, this guy here is nothing like him."

"I know exactly how he was." Nick said remorsefully, "I respected him a lot back then and if how he handled Angela is any indication of what this will do to any of us, I think that we will be in for a rough ride." he turned back towards his car and motioned for Steve to follow him, "Let's head back to the Lair and tell Kaku what has been going on over here."

_Other side of the Parking Lot_

Nancy looked quietly at the silent Li still licking his wounds from the fight and slapping Angela in the face. She had never seen him act so dark towards anyone like that before. Even in his most anger filled moments, he never crossed a line like he did right there. What was going through his mind right now? Why would he even go as far as hitting her like he did? She understood it and there were moments that she wanted to slap her silly because of the remarks that she made towards them. Yet when it came to him, it was like she sparked a nerve with him when it came to how he acted. In fact, she looked at the young man walking in front of her like a different person.

He had always been serious when it came to being the Kirin Ranger, but this was different. Almost like he was more driven to do what needs to be done; then she had to remind herself that this was his home. The last piece of humanity that he really had left in him, if that went then he would more than likely become an empty shell.

"I know you think I did the wrong thing back there." Li stopped a few feet in front of his bike.

"Think you did the wrong thing?" Nancy tilted her head slightly before she answered, "You hit Angela in the face! Since when did you think that it was all right to hit a woman in the face?"

Li stayed silent for a moment before he answered, "Would you have preferred that I would have used my Daibuster on her?"

"That's not funny and you know it!" Nancy snapped. "What the hell has gotten into you? Before the fight you were acting like you were gung ho to do the right thing and now you are one wonton short of a full plate? You didn't even show up when Steve and I were fighting Dansaku!"

"I had a situation of my own to handle!" Li turned around, his eyes were still filled with that coldness that it made Nancy shiver for a moment before she moved forward towards him.

"You know I am not going to take that shit from you!" Nancy saw Li stand down and turned back towards his motorcycle, still reflecting on what had happened earlier. She swallowed before she started talking, "Why did you do it, Xiao?"

Li was silent, he did not want Nancy to see the pain on his face.

"You had been waiting to see her again for a long time and then when she got on you about everything, you just slapped her. That's not like you at all."

"She kept blaming us for what happened back there." Li started, "I couldn't stand it. We did all that we could to protect those people back there. I did what I could to keep her out of trouble and all I got from it was anger."

Nancy slowly moved closer until she was only a few inches away and wrapped her arms around Li and held him tightly, "You knew that this wasn't going to be easy."

Li sighed in defeat, "I didn't think that it was going to be this difficult."

"Give it some time." Nancy said soothingly, "You've only been home for a little bit. A lot of the people here are expecting to see the person you were."

"I don't even know if that person is ever going to be able to come back." Li answered.

"Give it some time." Nancy leaned into Li's back, feeling how much he was trying to keep his calm.

Nancy closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the distress in Li's body. Every time she felt him like this, a part of her wanted to tell him how she felt towards him. How she wanted to help him get through the pain that he had to endure right now. Even though, she had to remind herself that she wanted to keep all of this simple and not let him any closer than she wanted him to be. Was that really the right thing for her to do? Was the distance she kept between them really enough for her to keep going? She tightened her grip just a little more, ignoring the sound of the police sirens in the distance. Slowly, the sounds began to fade away into white noise until all she could hear was the sound of Li's body breathing.

Their quiet moment was interrupted by the sound of their Aurachangers beeping, immediately, Li pushed Nancy off of him and reached for his Aura Spader and activated the communications end of it, "Xiao here, what's up?"

A soft toned feminine voice piped through the device, "It's Chin Mei, Kaku wants you and Nancy to head back to the Lair."

"Everything ok?" Li asked.

"It has to do with what happened over at the Mall." She answered, "Just hurry."

_Drip….Drip….Drip_

The sound of dripping water filled Mishelle's ears; it was the only thing she could truly make out right now. She didn't remember much except for the fight in the Mall against that guy with the tentacles, how he wrapped his appendages around her and tried to squeeze the life out of her body. There was more going on, she remembered the two multicolored warriors trying their best to get to her and then things got real hazy, except for that large red dragon.

That's right! There was a giant dragon that saved her from what was going on and that was the last thing she remembered before she totally blacked out. Now she wasn't exactly sure where she was except she could hear the sound of something dripping nearby. Slowly, she opened her eyes noticing nothing but darkness, but she almost instantaneously regaining her bearing as her eyes fixed on a faint light in the corner, which shined on some old railroad tracks on the ground.

She took another moment to realize that she was underground somewhere, which meant that she was safe from the mysterious monster that was attacking her. Yet she was now somewhere else which could be either safe or more danger depending on who or what she would encounter from here.

"Hello?" Mish said looking around to see if she could get someone's attention.

She continued walking for a couple of minutes in the dark, until she noticed one more doorway with some light coming from it. Very cautiously, she walked into the room and noticed that this was some kind of living room, with a couple of couches placed next to a small television at the far left corner of the room. To the corner next to her, were trees and a counter covered with some Chinese artifacts and some Japanese newspapers. She took a look at the other corners and noticed that they had Chinese Statues of a man and a woman, and to the center she saw a large pedestal and a floating green orb next to it.

She slowly turned around to see a red motorcycle with the initials R.K.-1 on the sides. There was something familiar about it, she could not place it, but she moved slowly towards it and tried to touch the vehicle and before she could react. The motorcycle nudged her. Mishelle moved back and fell onto the floor in complete fear. She didn't understand what exactly was going on around here especially given all that she had seen in the past couple of hours.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Mishelle screamed heading into the room, noticing another door leading out which she immediately headed towards to find some way to safety.

She continued to run out of the room, her body feeling like it was losing strength the more she moved further on. She decided to ignore it and find a way to escape and hopefully get home and forget all of this. She regardless of the pain she was feeling in her legs while she noticed a light in the distance getting closer and closer until she finally headed through it into the outside. It took her a second to regain her bearing once more. Instead of finding buildings and cars, she found herself in the middle of an old cannery district. Immediately, she saw the skyline of Long Beach in the distance, telling her that she had to be in San Pedro or Terminal Island, at least in the area that was called Furusato by the Japanese Americans who lived here before the 2nd World War.

Mishelle took a look around and noticed that she stood in front of a Fish Cannery. She saw that there were Japanese characters written on the side of the building. She was definitely in the remains of Furusato and this cannery was the only thing that remained of the old village. There were no cars nearby nor was there the sound of a ship or a boat coming from the water. She was totally alone with no real way to return to the city.

"Welcome to the old Dairenoh Fishery, Mishelle Reynosa." A feminine voice said from behind her.

Mishelle turned around to see a young, athletic Chinese woman standing in front of her. For a moment she watched this newcomer staring at her, wearing one those traditional dresses that you would see in some martial arts movie, but what surprised her more was the friendly look on her face. Given all that has happened to her today, she felt uneasy by the look that this woman was giving her right now.

"You don't have to be afraid of me." The woman said in a soft reassuring voice, "You are safe here."

Mishelle raised an eyebrow, "Safe?! Given that I have just seen people dressed in strange suits fight a tentacle creature. Not to mention I was just rescued by a giant dragon, I think I will be all right as I am."

Before the young woman could reply to Mishelle's statement, their attention focused to the sound of a car approaching the Cannery. A sign of relief appeared on Mishelle's face; she could get out of this place and then head back home. Her feet began to move slowly and with each step they picked up until they were near a run until she finally approached the vehicle.

"Thank God!" Mishelle screamed, "Can you give me a lift…"

She stopped mid sentence when she saw the faces of Nick Starr and Steven Hart greet her.

"You got to be kidding me!" Steve answered dumbfounded at Mishelle's appearance.

"I am all for coincidence." Nick said looking past Mishelle towards the young Chinese woman, "But this is becoming a little beyond that."

"Nothing is coincidence, Nickolas." The woman, Chin Mei, answered him, "Everything happens for a reason."

"Then you are saying Amika was captured for a reason?" Nick asked, his calm demeanor was slowly chipping away, "You are saying that these Gorma are…"

Mishelle interrupted, "What do you mean Amika was captured?"

"Yes." Nick said calmly, "Before the attack on the Mall, I was attacked by Dansaku as well. I had asked Steve and Tommy Li follow you, Angela and Lola because we weren't sure you would be next."

A look of confusion appeared on Mishelle's face, "Why would you want them to follow me?"

"Perhaps that is where I should explain." An older, male voice echoed from behind Mishelle.

An older gentleman dressed in a brown Zhongshan suit approached the small group of people. There was a look in his brown eyes that was one would not see in a man his age. He stood there in front of the four of them, almost like he was a deity that had come down from the heavens to pass judgment on those mortals who lived on Earth. He gave himself a moment to adjust the brown head band wrapped across his forehead before he continued to speak.

"Master!" Chin Mei bowed down in front of the new arrival.

"Relax, child." The older gentleman said calmly, "There is no need for formality right now. In fact I think that this conversation should be continued back inside the Cannery."

Chin Mei nodded and motioned for the others to follow. Mishelle was hesitant at first, but was reassured by the calm nod that Nick had given her.

"Forgive me for not being around to introduce myself sooner, Mishelle." The man's voice echoed with authority and kindness, "My name is Kaku and I am glad to see that you were able to survive an attack from Himo Dansaku."

"What?" Mishelle asked as she reentered the living room area, her eyes following the master as he sat down at in the center of the room.

"Himo Dansaku is from a race of ancient beings called the Gorma." Chin Mei answered, "The Gorma was one a mighty clan that ruled part of what you now call China. They were known for their brutality and military force. Kaku and I are part of a tribe known as the Dai; a clan that has been fighting against them for just as long."

Kaku decided to interrupt Chin Mei, "You have been chosen to become part of the mighty team known as Dairanger. Created mainly to keep the rest of the Gorma and other evils from destroying the Earth, and both Western and Eastern Civilization as we know it."

"Dai—what?" Mish asked.

"Dairanger. The chosen warriors of the Dai Tribe." Chen Mei said,

"Why me?" Mish asked, "Surely there are others that are more worthy of this."

Kaku answered, "Perhaps, but you have always known that you have been destined for something grand and mystic. That was definitely evident by the way you unleashed that power inside the Mall. This is the beginning of that journey Mishelle, and you have been chosen by Ryuu Sei Oh."

"I am impressed." Nancy answered as she entered the room, "But not surprised that you are the one that was chosen, especially after that little fireworks display."

Li walked in behind her, still smarting from what he did at the Mall, he nodded in acknowledgment to the people in the room and looked in the direction of Kaku patiently waiting for things to settle down.

The master calmly continued, "You five have been called together to stop the Gorma from destroying this world and enslaving humanity. I only hope that you all can stop this from escalating into something very horrific."

Mishelle took a moment to look around knowing that some of these people were strangers to her, and yet some were friends. She knew that they were chosen for a specific reason, and no matter that reason she would have to follow through. That whole incident at the Mall told her that something wrong and maybe they were the ones to stop it. She took nodded at the two people in front of her, letting them know that she was ready to follow through with the task that was given to her.

"Now you are the last to become a Dairanger, here is the one important thing you need to use." Chin Mei said as she handed Mishelle two small devices. The first one was a small oval shaped device with silver lining a little ring sticking out of it, with the phrase "Aurachanger" written in the center it, this device was called a Gyazar Bar. The second device was also rounded and had gold lining; on one side there was a slot to place the small circle, this device was called an Aura Spader. "These Aurachangers will increase your Chi abilities, and give you the edge to fight against Gorma."

She continued to look at the devices for a long time, this was the moment that Mishelle had waited for all of her life, the moment to prove that she was more than the young woman that everyone perceived her to be. This was her time to show the world that she was capable of being someone others could look to, she was a Dairanger!


End file.
